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THE 



ASHLAND 

TEXT BOOK, 



A COMPENDIUM 



ME. CLAY'S SPEECHES, 



VARIOUS PUBl,IC MEASURES, 

Etc. Etc. 



THIHS EDITION. 



BOSTON— REDDING «& CO. 
NEW YORK— SAXTON & MILES, M. Y. BEACH. 
• PHILADELPHIA— G. B. ZIEBER & CO. 
BALTIMORE— CUSHING & BROTHERS. 

RICHMOND— DRINKER & MORRIS. 

NEW ORLEANS— BRAVO & MORGAN. 

COLUMBUS, (OHIO,)— WHITING & HUNTINGTON. 

1S44. 



C 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1844, by N. Hick- 
man, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the State of Mary- 
land. 



KINB AND BAIRD, PRINTERS, PHILADELrHIA. 



^ ^ 



WHIG PllINCIPLES. 



Ashland, iZth September, 1843. 
UEAR Sm: 

I received your favor communicating the patriotic pur- 
poses and views of the young men of Philadelphia ; and I take 
pleasure, in compliance with your request, in stating some of 
the principal objects which, 1 suppose, engage the common 
desire and the common exertions of the Whig party, to bring 
about, in the Government of the United States. These are : 

A sound National currency, regulated by the will and authority 
of the Nation. 

An adequate Revenue, with fair protection to American in- 
dustry. 

Just restraints on the Executive power, embracirtg a further 
restriction on the exercise of the Veto. 

A faithful administration of the Public domain, with an equita- 
ble distribution of the proceeds of sales of it among all the 
States. 

An honest and economical administration of the General 
Government, leaving public officers perfect freedom of thought 
and of the right of suffrage ; but with suitable restraints against 
improper interference in elections. 

An amendment of the Constitution, limiting the incumbent 
of the Presidential office to a single term. 

These objects attained, I think that we should cease to be 
afflicted with bad administrations of the Government. 
I am, respectfully. 

Your fiiend and obedient servant, 

H. CLAY. 

Mr. Jacob Strattan. 



THE ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 



HENRY CLAY. 

In revolutionary days, when the affairs of the whole country 
were enshrouded in the deepest gloom, all the true lovers of 
their country looked up to Washington, as the saviour of his 
fellow-countrymen. It needed not the petty machinery of ca- 
bals, to convincet he people that the man best qualified for the 
emergency, was Washington. Public opinion, free, untram- 
melled public opinion, by its resistless impulses, bore the great 
and the good chieftain into his appropriate place. In this, as in 
all other cases, the correctness of public opinion was plainly 
manifested. «• 

After the trumpet had ceased to sound — when peace was 
smiling all around — thi« same public opinion called on Wash- 
ington to leave the quiet of domestic life, for the turmoil and 
responsibilities of the Executive Chair. The ravages of a 
despotic power were visible through the whole extent of the 
land. As a natural consequence of the state of affairs through 
Avhich the country had just passed, agriculture had been ne- 
glected — the commerce of the country, little as it had been, was 
almost prostrated — the mechanical arts had, of necessity, been 
overtooked — farms, workshops, and all else, had been emptied 
to make up armies — dejection brooded over every countenance, 
and despair was not far off, and it needed just such a man as 
Washington to bring out from the heterogeneous mass, the 
elements of future national prosperity and glory. 

We not only see, but in the most poignant way feel, the 
present condition of our country. It is suffering under a pros- 
tration, occasioned by a series of the most ferocious attacks on 
her commerce, agriculture, mechanic arts, manufactures and 
currency. The merchants are, in many instances, beggared, for 
commerce has been crippled. The hardy sons of the soil, the 
honest, biown handed farmers have no inducements to cultivate 
much beyond what is in demand for their own immediate use. 
In the workshops of the artisan, undisturbed cobwebs are found 
festooning the instruments of former industry. "The sound of 
the shuttle" is scarcely heard in the land, and the currency of 



6 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

the day is bej'ond reach and below contempt. The professions 
are poorly paid, or not at all. Each man looks upon his neigh- 
bor, and seems to be as-king, when shall tliis soul desponding 
state of ihirtgs end ? 

It is in this condition of onr affairs, so similar to the times 
which preceded and followed the American Revolution, tliat 
every eye is turned towards the great, the good, the patriotic 
Clay. In every patriotic heart, he has received a nomination 
for the ofiice which, once being filled by a Washington, was 
the means of rescuing the country from the demon-like attacks 
of political anarchists. It must be peculiarly gratifying to Henry 
Clay that, in this trying hour of his country, in this extreme 
emergency, when all hearts seem to fail and when trembling 
has come upon her stoutest men, he is, almost simultaneously, 
by the people of this wide spread land, regarded as the only 
man who can rescue it from the awful position in which it 
has been placed by the reckless doings of heartless demagogues. 

Henry Clay now stands before the American people proudly 
erect. His very name is enshrined in the people's " heart of 
hearts." They know, judging from the past, that he will not 
swerve in the hour of difficulty from the maintenance of those 
great principles of American liberty, which he has on all oc- 
casions, and at all hazards, so eloquently advocated. The 
people believe that Henry Clay is the only man into whose 
hands can be entrusted the responsible task of bringing back to 
the conntry the prosperity of former days. They further be- 
lieve, that Henry Clay is not to be moved by the blandish- 
ments of false friends, or the menaces of hidden foes. His 
principles are known, and by himself openly avowed. He 
does not court secresy — his whole history is before the country 
and the property of that country. Like Washington, he has 
retired from the strife of the political world, to the shades of 
rural retirement, and the people are calling on him, as they 
did upon Washington, to come forth and take the helm, and 
save them from destruction. 



ON PROTECTION TO HOME INDUSTRY, 

House of Representatives, £pril 26, 1820. 

In considering the subject, the first important inquiry that we 
should make is, whether it be desirable that such a portion of 
the capital and labor of the country should be employed, in the 
business of manufacturing, as would furnish a supply of our 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 7 

necessary wants ? Since the first colonization of America, tlie 
principal direction of the labor and capital of the inhabitants 
has been to produce raw materials for the consumption or fabri- 
cation of foreign nations. We have always had, in great abund- 
ance, the means of subsistence, but we have derived chiefly from 
other countries our clothes, and the instruments of defence. 
Except during those interruptions of commerce arising from a 
state of war, or from measures adopted for vindicating our com- 
mercial rights, we have experienced no very great inconve- 
nience heretofore from this mode of supply. The limited amount 
of our surplus produce, resulting from the smallness of our 
numbers, and the long and arduous convulsions of Europe, 
secured ns good markets for that surplus in her ports or those 
of her colonies. But those convulsions liave now ceased, and 
our population has reached nearly ten millions. A new epoch 
has arisen ; and it becomes us deliberately to contemplate our 
own actual condition, and the relations which are likely to exist 
between us and the other parts of the world. The actual state 
of our population, and the ratio of its progressive increase when 
compared with the ratio of the increase of the population of the 
countries which have hitherto consumed our raw produce, seem, 
to me, alone to demonstrate the necessity of diverting some 
portion of our industry from its accustomed channel. We double 
our population in about the term of twenty-five years. If there 
be n^ change in the mode of exerting our industry, w-e shall 
double, during the same term, the amount of our exportable pro- 
duce. Europe, including such of her colonies as we have free 
access to, taken altogether, does not duplicate her population in 
a shorter term, probably, than one hundred years. The ratio 
cif the increase of her capacity of consumption, therefore, is, 
to that of our capacity of production, as one is to four. And 
it is manifest, from the simple exhibition of the powers of the 
consuming countries, compared with those of the supplying 
country, that the former are inadequate to the latter. It is cer- 
tainly true, that a portion of the mass of our raw produce, which 
we transmit to her, reverts to us in a fabricated form, and that 
this return augments with our increasing population. This 
is, however, a very inconsiderable addition to her actual ability 
to afford a market for the produce of our industry. 

The wants of man may be classed under three heads — food, 
raiment and defence. They are felt alike in the state of barbar- 
ism and of civilization. He must be defended against the 
ferocious beasts of prey in the one condition, and against the 
ambition, violence, and injustice, incident to the other. If he 
seeks to obtain a supply of those wants without giving an 
equivalent, he is a beggar or a robber ; if by promising an 



8 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

equivalent wliich he cannot give, he is fraudulent ; and if by a 
commerce, in which there is perfect freedom on his side, whilst 
he meets witli nothing but restrictions on llie other, he submits 
to an unjust and degrading inequality. What is true of individ- 
uals is equal]_v so of nations. The country then, which relies 
upon foreign nations for either of those great essentials, is not, 
in fact, independent. Nor is it any consolation for our de- 
pendence upon other nations, that they are also dependent upon 
us, even were it true. Every nation should anxiously endeavor 
to establish its absolute independence, and consequently be able 
to feed, and clothe, and defend itself. If it rely upon a foreign 
supply, that may be cut ofl' by the caprice of the nation yielding 
it, by war with it, or even by war with other nations : it cannot 
be independent. But it is not true that any other nations de- 
pend upon us in a degree anything like equal to that of our 
dependence upon them for the great necessaries to which I have 
referred. Every other nation seeks to supply itself with them 
from its own resources ; and, so strong is the desire which they 
feel to accomplish this purpose, that they exclude the cheaper 
foreign article for the dearer home production. Witness the 
English policy in regard to corn. So selfish, in this respect, is 
the conduct of other powers, that, in some instances, they even 
proliibit the produce of the industry of their oivn colonies, when 
it comes into competition with the produce of the parent coun- 
try. All other countries but our own exclude, by high duties 
or absolute prohibitions, whatever they can respectively produce 
within themselves. The truth is, and it is in vain to disguise 
it, that we are a sort of independent colonies of England — 
politically free, commercially slaves. Gentlemen tell us of the 
advantages of a free exchange of the produce of the world. 
But they tell us of what has never existed, does not exist, and 
perhaps never will exist. They invoke us to give perfect free- 
dom on our side, whilst in the ports of every other nation, we 
are met with a code of odious restrictions, shutting out entirely 
a great part of our produce, and letting in only so much as they 
cannot possibly do without. I will hereafter examine their 
favorite maxim, of leaving things to themselves, more particu- 
larly. At present I will only say that I too am a friend to free 
trade, but it must be a free trade of perfect reciprocity. If the 
governing consideration were cheapness ; if national independ- 
ence were to weigh nothing; if honor nothing; why not sub- 
sidize foreign powers to defend us? why not hire Swiss or 
Hessian mercenaries to protect us ? why not get our arms of all 
kinds, as we do in part the blankets and clothing of our sol- 
diers, from abroad ? We should probably consult economy 
by these dangerous expedients. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 9 

But it is urged, that you tax other interests of the state to 
sustain manufacturers. The business of manufacturing, if en- 
couraged, will be open to all. It is not for the sake of the par- 
ticular individuals who may happen to be engaged in it, that we 
propose to foster it ; but it is for the general interest. We think 
that it is necessary to the comfort and well-being of society, that 
fabrication, as well as the business of production and distribu- 
tion, should be supported and taken care of. Now, if it be 
even true, that the price of the home fabric will be somewhat 
higher, in the first instance, than the rival foreign articles, that 
consideration ought not to prevent our extending reasonable pro- 
tection to the home fabric. Present temporary inconvenience 
may be well submitted to for the sake of future permanent 
benefit. If the experience of all other countries be not utterly 
fallacious ; if the promises of the manuficturing system be not 
absolutely illusory, by the competition which will be elicited 
in consequence of your parental care, prices will be ultimately 
brought down to a level with that of the foreign commodity. 
Now, in a scheme of policy which is devised for a nation, we 
should not limit our views to its operation during a single year, 
or for even a short term of years. We should look at its opera- 
lion for a considerable time, and in war as well as in peace. 
Can there be a doubt, thus contemplating it, that we shall be 
compensated by the certainty and steadiness of the supply in all 
seasons, and the ultimate r^eduction of the price for any tempo- 
rary sacrifices we make ? Take the example of salt, which the 
ingenious gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Archer) has adduced. 
He says, (luring the war the price of that article rose to ten 
dollars per bushel, and he asks if you would lay a duty, perma- 
nent in its duration, of three dollars per bushel, to secure a 
supply in war. I answer, no, I would not lay so high a duty. 
That which is now proposed, for the encouragement of the 
domestic production, is only five cents per bushel. In forty 
years the duty would amount only to two dollars. If the re- 
currence of war shall be only after intervals of forty years' 
peace, (and we may expect it probably oftener,) and if, when it 
does come, the same price should again be given, there will be 
a clear saving of eight dollars, by promoting the domestic fabri- 
cation. All society is an affair of mutual concession. If we 
expect to derive the benefits which are incident to it, we must 
sustain our reasonable share of burdens. The great interests 
which it is intended to guard and cherish, must be supported 
by their reciprocal action and reaction. The harmony of its 
parts is disturbed ; the discipline which is necessary to its order 
is incomplete, when one of the three great and essential branches 
of its industry is abandoned gnd unprotected. If you want to 



10 ASHLAND TKXT BOOK. 

find an example of order, of freedom from debt, of economy, of 
expenditure falling below, ratlier than exceeding income, you 
will go to one well-regulated family of a farmer. You will 
go to the house of such a man as Isaac Shelby. You will not 
find him haunting taverns, engaged in broils, prosecuting angry 
lawsuits. You will behold every member of his family clad 
with the produce of their own hands, and usefully employed ; 
the spinning-wheel and the loom in motion by daybreak. With 
what pleasure will his wife carry you into lier neat dairy, lead 
j-ou into her store-house, and point you to the table-cloths, the 
sheets, the counterpanes which lie on this shelf for one daughter, 
or on that for another, all prepared in advance by her provi- 
dent care for the day of their respective marriages. If you want 
to see an opposite example, go to the house of a man who 
manufactures nothing at home, whose family resorts to the 
store for every thing they consume. You will find him per- 
haps in the tavern, or at the shop at the cross-roads. He is 
engaged, with the rum grog on the table, taking depositions to 
make out some case of usury or fraud. Or perhaps he is fur- 
nishing to his lawyer the materials to prepare a long bill of in- 
junction in some intricate case. The sheriff is hovering about 
his farm to serve some new writ. On court-days — he never 
misses attending them — you will find him eagerly collecting his 
witnesses to defend himself against the merchant's and doctor's 
claims. Go to his house, and, after the short and giddy period 
that his wife and daughters have flirted about the country in their 
calico and muslin frocks, what a scene of discomfort and dis- 
tress is presented to you there ! AVhat the individual family 
of Isaac Shelby is, I wish to see the nation in the aggregate 
become. But I fear we shall shortly have to contemplate its 
resemblance in the opposite picture. If statesmen would care- 
fully observe the conduct of private individuals in the manage- 
ment of their own afi'airs, they would have much surer guides 
in promoting the interests of the state, than the visionary specu- 
lations of theoretical writers. 

The manufacturing system is not only injurious to agricul- 
ture, but, say its opponents, it is injurious also to foreign com- 
merce. We ought not to conceal from ourselves our present 
actual position in relation to other powers. During the protracted 
war which has so long convulsed all Europe, and which will 
probably be succeeded by a long peace, we transacted the com- 
mercial business of other nations, and largely shared with Eng- 
land the carrying trade of the world. " Now, every other 
nation is anxiously endeavoring to transact its own business, to 
rebuild its marine, and to foster its navigation. The consequence 
of the former state of things was, that our mercantile marine, 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. M 

and our commercial employment were enormously dispropor- 
tionate to the exchangeable domestic produce of our country. 
And the result of the latter will be, that, as exchanges belweea 
this country and other nations will hereafter consist principally, 
on our part, of our domestic produce, that marine and that em- 
ployment will be brought down to what is necessary to effect 
those exchanges. I regret exceedingly this reduction. I wish 
the mercantile class could enjoy the same extensive commerce 
that they formerly did. But, if they cannot, it would be a 
folly to repine at what is irrecoverably lost, and we should seek 
rather to adapt ourselves to the new circumstances in which we 
find ourselves. If, as I think, we have reached the maximum 
of our foreign demand for our three greatstaples, cotton, tobacco, 
and flour, no man will contend that v\'e should go on to produce 
more and more, to be sent to the glutted foreign market, and 
^consumed by devouring expenses, merely to give employment 
to our tonnage and to our foreign commerce. It would be ex- 
tremely unwise to accommodate our industry to produce, not 
what is wanted abroad, but cargoes for our unemployed ships. 
1 would give our foreign trade every legitimate encouragement, 
and extend it whenever it can be extended profitably. Hitherto 
it has been stimulated too highly, by the condition of the 
world, and our own policy acting on that condition. And we 
are reluctant to believe that we must submit to its necessary 
abridgment. The habits of trade ; the tempting instances of 
enormous fortunes which have been made by the successful 
prosecution of it, are such, that we turn with regret from its 
pursuit ; we still cherish a lingering hope ; we persuade ourselves 
that something will occur, how and what it may be, we know 
not, to revive its former activity ; and we would push into every 
untried channel, grope through the Dardanelles into the Black 
Sea, to restore its t'ormer profits. I repeat it, let us proclaim to 
the people of the United States the incontestable truth, that our 
foreign trade must be circumscribed by the altered state of the 
world ; and, leaving it in the possession of all the gains which 
it can now possibly make, let us present motives to the capi- 
tal and labor of our country to employ themselves in fabrication 
at home. There is no danger that, by a withdrawal of that 
portion which is unprofitably employed on other objects, and an 
application of it to fabrication, our agriculture would be too 
much cramped. The produce of it will always come up to the 
foreign demand. Such are the superior allurements belonging 
to the cultivation of the soil to all other branches of industry, 
that it will always be preferred when it can profitably be fol- 
lowed. The foreign demand will, in any conceivable state of 
things, limit the amount of the exportable produce of agriculture. 



13 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

The amount of our exportations will form the measure of our 
importations, and, whatever these may be, they will constitute 
the basis of the revenue derivable from customs. 

The entire independence of my country on all foreign states, 
as it respects a supply of our essential wants, has ever been with 
me a favorite object. The war of our revolution effected our 
political emancipation. The last war contributed greatly towards 
accomplishing our commercial freedom. But our complete in- 
dependence will only be consummated after the policy of this 
bill shall be recognised and adopted. AVe have, indeed, great 
difliculties to contend with ; old habits, colonial usages, the 
obduracy of the colonial spirit, the enormous profits of a foreign 
trade, prosecuted under favorable circumstances, which no 
longer continue. I will not despair ; the cause, I verily believe, 
is the cause of the country. It may be postponed ; it may be 
frustrated for the moment, but it must finally pievail. liCl us 
endeavor to acquire for the present Congress, the merit of 
having laid this solid foundation of the national prosperity. 



ON AMERICAN INDUSTRY. 

House of Representatives, March 30 and^l, 1824. 

The object of the bill under consideration, is to create the 
home market, and to lay the foundations of a genuine American 
policy. It is opposed, and it is incumbent upon the partizans 
of the foreign policy (terms which I shall use without any 
invidious intent) to demonstrate that the foreign market is an 
adequate vent for the surplus produce of our labor. But is it 
so ? 1. Foreign nations cannot, if they would, take our surplus 
produce. If the source of supply, no matter of what, increase 
in a greater ratio than the demand for that supply, a glut of the 
market is inevitable, even if we suppose both to remain pei- 
fec ly unobstructed. The duplication of our population takes 
place in terms of about twenty-five years. The term will be 
more and more extended as our numbers multiply. But it 
will be suflicient approximation to assume lliis ratio for the 
present. We increase, therefore, in population, at the rate of 
about four per centum per annum. Supposing the increase of 
our production to be in the same ratio, we should, every suc- 
ceeding year, have of surplus produce, four per centum more 
than that of the preceding year, without taking into the account 
the difference of seasons which neutralize eacli other. If, there- 
fore, we are to rely upon the foreign market exclusively, foreign 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 13 

consumption ought to be shown to be increasing in the same 
ratio of four per centum per annum, if it be an adequate vent for 
our surphis produce. Bui, as I have supposed the measure of 
our increasing pro<hiction to be furnished by that of our increas- 
ing population, so the measure of their power of consumption 
must be determined by tiiat of the increase of their population. 
Now, the total foreign population, who consume our surplus 
produce, upon an average, do not double their aggregate number 
in a shorter term than that of about one hundred years. Our 
powers of production increase then in a ratio four times greater 
than their powers of consumption. And hence their utter ina- 
bility to receive from us our surplus produce. 

But, secondly. If they could, they will not. The policy of 
all Europe is adverse to the reception of'our agricultural pro- 
duce, so far as it comes into collision with its own ; and under 
that limitation we are absolutely forbid to enter their ports, 
except under circumstances which deprive them of all value as 
a steady market. The policy of all Europe rejects those great 
staples of our country, which consist of objects of human sub- 
sistence. The policy of all Europe refuses to receive from us 
any thing but those raw materials of smaller value, essential to 
their manufactures, to which they can give a higher value, with 
the exception of tobacco and rice, which they cannot produce. 
Even Great Britain, to which we are its best customer, and from 
which we receive nearly one half in value of our whoL imports, 
will not take from us articles of subsistence produced in our 
country cheaper than can be produced in Great Britain. In 
adopting this exclusive policy, the states of Europe do not 
inquire what is best for us, but what suits them respectively ; 
they do not take jurisdiction of the question of our interests, 
but limit the object of their legislation to that of the conserva- 
tion of their own peculiar interests, leaving us free to prosecute 
ours as we please. They do not guide themselves by that 
romantic philanthropy which we see displayed here, and which 
invokes us to continue to purchase the produce of foreign in- 
dustry, without regard to the state or prosperity of our own, 
that foreigners may be pleased to purchase the few remaining 
articles of ours, which their restricted policy has not yet abso- 
hitely excluded from their consumption. What sort of a figure 
would a member of the British Parliament have made — what 
sort of a reception would his opposition have obtained, if he 
liad remonstrated against the passage of the corn law, by which 
British consumption is limited to the bread-stuffs of British pro- 
duction, to the entire exclusion of American, and stated that 
America could not and would not buy British manufactures, if 
Britain did not buy American flour! 



14 ASHLAND TEST BOOK. 

Both the inability and the policy of foreign powers, then, 
forbid us to rely upon the foreign market as being an adequate 
vent for the surplus produce of American labor. Now, let us 
ses if this general reasoning is not fortified and confirmed by 
the actual experience of this country. If the foreign market 
may be safely relied upon, as furnishing an adequate demand 
for our surplus produce, then the official documents will show 
a progressive increase, from year to year, in the exports of our 
native produce, in a proportion equal to that which 1 have sug- 
gested. If, on the contrary, we shall find from them that, for 
a long term of past years, some of our most valuable staples 
have retrograded, some remained stationary, and others advanced 
but little, if any, in amount, with the exception of cotton, the 
deductions of reason and the lessons of experience will alike 
command us to withdraw our confidence in the competency of 
the foreign market. The total amount of all our exports of 
domestic produce for the year beginning in 1795, and ending 
on the thirtieth September, 1796, was forty millions seven hun- 
dred and sixty-four thousand and ninety-seven. Estimating the 
increase according to the ratio of the increase of our population, 
that is, at four per centum per annum, the amount of the exports 
of the same produce, in the year ending on tlie thirtieth Sep- 
tember last, ought to have been eighty-five millions four hundred 
and twenty thousand eight hundred and sixty-one. It was in 
fact only forty-seven millions one hundred and fifty-five thousand 
four hundred and eight. Taking the average of five years, 
from 1803 to 1807, inclusive, the amount of native produce 
exported was forty-three millions, two hundred and two thou- 
sand seven hundred and fifty-one for each of those years. Es- 
timating what it ought to have been, during the last year, apply- 
ing the principle suggested to that amount, there should have 
been exported seventy-seven millions seven hundred and sixty- 
six thousand seven hundred and fifty-one, instead of forty-seven 
millions one hundred and fifty-five thousand four hundred and 
eight. If these comparative amounts of the aggregate actual 
reports, and what they ought to have been, be discouraging, we 
shall find, on descending into particulars, still less cause of satis- 
faction. The export of tobacco in 1791, was one hundred and 
twelve thousand four hundred and twenty-eight hogsheads. 
That was the year of the largest exportation of that article ; but 
it is the only instance in which I have selected the maximum of 
exportation. The amount of what we ought to have exported 
last year, estimated according to the scale of increase which I 
have used, is two hundred and sixty-six thousand three hun- 
dred and thirty-two hogsheads. The actual export was ninety- 
nine thousand and nine hogsheads. We exported in 1803, the 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 15 

quantity of one million three hundred and eleven thousand 
eight hundred and fifty-three barrels of flour : and ought to have 
exported last year two millions three hundred and sixty-one 
thousand three hundred aid thirty-tliree barrels. We, in feet, 
exported only seven hundred and fifty-six thousand seven hun- 
dred and two barrels. Of that quantity we sent to South America 
one hundred and fifty thousand barrels, according to a statement 
furnished me by the diligence of a friend near me (Mr. Poin- 
sett) to whose valuable mass of accurate information, in regard 
to that interesting quarter of the world, I have had occasion fre- 
quently to apply. But that demand is temporary, growing out 
of the existing state of war. Whenever peace is restored to 
it, and I now hope that the day is not distant when its independ- 
ence will be generally acknowledged, there cannot be a doubt 
that it will supply its own consumption. In all parts of it the 
soil, either from climate or elevation, is well adapted to the cul- 
ture of wheat ; and nowhere can better wheat be produced than 
in some portions of Mexico and Chili. Still the market of 
South America is one which, on other accounts, deserves the 
greatest consideration. And I congratulate you, the committee, 
and the country, on the recent adoption of a more auspicious 
policy towards it. 

Our agricultural is our greatest interest. It ought ever to 
be predominant. All others should bend to it. And, in con- 
sidering what is for its advantage, we should contemplate it in 
all its varieties, of planting, farming, and grazing. Can we do 
nothing to invigorate it ; nothing lo correct the errors of the 
past, and to brighten the still more unpromising prospects which 
lie before us 1 We have seen, I think, the causes of the dis- 
tresses of the country. We have seen, that an exclusive depend- 
ence upon the foreign market must lead to still severer distress, 
to impoverishment, to ruin. We must then change somewhat 
our course. We must give a new direction to some portion of 
our industry. We must speedily adopt a genuine American 
policy, still cherishing the foreign market': let us create also a 
home market, to give further scope to the consumption of the 
produce of American industry. Let us counteract the policy of 
foreigners, and withdraw the support which we now give to 
their industry, and stimulate that of our own country. Itshould 
be a prominent object with wise legislators, to multiply the 
vocations that extend the business of society, as far as it can be 
done, by the protection of our interests at home, against the 
injurious effects of foreign legislation. Suppose we were a nation 
of fishermen, or of skippers, to the exclusion of every other 
occupation, and the legislature had the power to introduce the 
pursuits o{ agriculture and manufactures, would not our happi- 



16 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

ness be promoted by an exertion^ of its authority ? All the ex- 
isting employments of society, the learned professions, com- 
merce, agriculture, are now overflowing. We stand in each 
otifer's way. Hence the want of employment. Hence the eager 
pursuit after public stations, which I have before glanced at. 

The creation of a home market is not only necessary to pro- 
cure for our agriculture a just reward of its labors, but it is 
indispensable to obtain a supply of our necessary wants. If we 
cannot sell, we cannot buy. That portion of our population, 
(and we have seen that it is not less than four-fifths,) which 
makes comparatively nothing that foreigners will buy, have 
nothing to make purchases with from foreigners. It is in vain 
that we are told of the amount of our exports supplied by the 
planting interest. They may enable the planting interest to 
supply all its wants ; but they bring no ability to the interests 
not planting ; unless, which cannot be pretended, the planting 
interest is an adequate vent for the surplus produce of the labor 
of all other interests. It is in vain to tantalize us with the great 
cheapness of foreign fabrics. There must be an ability to pur- 
chase, if an article be obtained, whatever may be tlie price, 
high or low, at which it is sold. And a cheap article is as 
much beyond tlie grasp of him who has no means to buy, as a 
liigli one. Even if it were true that the American manufacturer 
would supply consumption at dearer rates, it is better to have 
his fabrics than the unattainable foreign fabrics : because it is 
better to be ill supplied than not supplied at all. A coarse coat, 
which will communicate warmth and cover nakedness, is better 
than no coat. The superiority of the home market results, 1st, 
from its steadiness and comparative certainty at all times; 2d, 
from the creation of reciprocal interests ; .3d, from its greater 
security; and, lasdy, from an ultimate and not distant augmen- 
tation of consumption, (and consequently of comfort,) from in- 
creased quantity and reduced prices. But this home market, 
highly desirable as it is, can only be created and cherished by 
the PROTECTION of our own legislation against the inevitable 
prostration of our industry, which must ensue from the action 
of FOREIGN policy and legislation. The effect and the value 
of this domestic care of our own interests will be obvious from 
a few facts and consideraiions. Let us suppose that half a 
million of persons are now employed abroad in fabricating, 
for our consumption, those articles, of which, by the operation 
of this bill, a supply is intended to be provided within our- 
selves. That half a million of persons are, in effect, subsisted 
by us; but their actual means of subsistence are drawn from 
foreign agriculture. If we could transport them to this country, 
and incorporate them in the mass of our own population, there 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 17 

would instantly arise a demand for an amount of provisions 
equal to tliat which v.'ould be requisite for their subsistence 
throughout tlie whole year. That demand in tlie article of Hour 
alone, would not be less than the quantity of about nine hundred 
thousand barrels, besides a proportionate quantity of beef, and 
pork, and other articles for subsistence. But nine hundred 
thousand barrels of flour exceeds the entire quantity exported 
last year, by nearly one hundred and fifty thousand barrels. 
"What activity would not this give, what cheerfulness would it 
not communicate, to our now dispirited farming interest ! But 
if, instead of these tive hundred thousand artisans emigrating 
from abroad, we give by this bill employment to an equal 
number of our own citizens, now engaged in unprofitable agri- 
culture, or idle from the want of business, the beneficial effect 
upon the productions of our farming labor would be nearly 
doubled. The quantity would be diminished by a subtraction 
of the produce from the labor of all those who should be diverted 
from its pursuits to manufacturing industry, and the value of 
the residue would be enhanced, both by that diminution, and 
the creation of the home market to the extent supposed. 

The great desideratum in political economy, is the same as 
in private pursuits ; that is, what is the best application of the 
aggregate industry of a nation, that can be made honestly to 
produce the largest sum of national wealth ? Labor is the 
source of all wealth ; but it is not natural labor only. 

And what is this tariff? It seems to have been regarded as 
a sort of monster, huge and deformed — a wild beast, endowed 
with tremendous powers of destruction, about to be let loose 
among our people — if not to devour them, at least to consume 
their substance. But let us calm our passions, and deliberately 
survey this alarming, this terrific being. The sole object of 
the tariff" is to tax the produce of foreign industry, with the view 
of promoting American industry. The tax is exclusively 
levelled at foreign industry. That is the avowed and the direct 
purpose of the tariff. If it subjects any part of American in- 
dustry to burdens, that is an effect not intended, but is alto- 
gether incidental, and perfectly voluntary. 

But it is said that, wherever there is a concurrence of favora- 
ble circumstances, manufactures will arise of themselves, with- 
out protection ; and that we should not disturb the natural pro- 
gress of industry, but leave things to themselves. If all nations 
would modify their policy on this axiom, perhaps it would be 
better for the common good of the whole. Even then, in con- 
sequence of natural advantages and a greater advance in civili- 
zation and in the arts, some nations would enjoy a state of 
much higher prosperity than others. But there is no universal 
1* 



18 A.SIILAND TEXT nOOK. 

legislation. The globe is diviuod into different communities, 
each seeking to appropriate to itself all the advantages it can, 
without reference to the prosperity of others. Whether this is 
right or not, it has always been, and ever will be the case. 
Perhaps the care of the interests of one people is sufficient for 
all the wisdom of one legislature ; and that it is among nations 
as among individuals, that the happiness of the whole is best 
secured by each attending to its own peculiar interests. The 
proposition to be maintained by our adversaries, is, that manu- 
factures, without protection, will, in due time, spring up in our 
country, and sustain themselves, in a competition with foreign 
fabrics, however advanced the arts, and whatever the degree of 
protection may be in foreign countries. Now 1 contend that 
this proposition is refuted by all experience, ancient and modern, 
and in every country. If I am asked why unprotected industry 
should not succeed in a struggle with protected industry, I 
answer, the fact has ever been so, and that is sufficient ; I 
reply, that uniform experiknce evinces that it cannot succeed 
in such an unequal contest, and that is sufficient. If we specu- 
late on the causes of this universal truth, we may differ about 
them. Still, the indisputable fact remains. And we should be 
as unwise in not availing ourselves of the guide wliich it fur- 
nishes, as a man would be who should refuse to bask in the rays 
of the sun, because he could not agree with Judge Woodward 
as to the nature of the substance of that planet, to which we are 
indebted for heat and light. If I were to attempt to particu- 
larize the causes which prevent the success of tlie manufac- 
turing arts, without protection, I should say, that they are — 
1st, the obduracy of fixed habits. No nation, no individual, 
will easily change an established course of business, even if it 
be unprofitable; and least of all is an agricultural people prone 
to innovation. With what reluctance do they not adopt im- 
provements in the instruments of husbandry, or in modes of 
cultivation ! If the farmer makes a good crop, and sells it badly, 
or makes a short crop, buoyed up by hope he perseveres, and 
trusts that a favorable change of the market, or of the seasons, 
will enable him, in the succeeding year, to repair the misfor- 
tunes of the past. 2d, the uncertainty, fluctuation, and unsteadi- 
ness of the home market, when liable to an unrestricted influx 
of fabrics from all foreign nations ; and .Sd, the superior advance 
of skill, and amount of capital, which foreign nations have ob- 
tained, by the protection of their own industry. From the latter, 
or from other causes, the unprotected manufactures, are exposed 
to the danger of being crushed in their infancy, either by the 
design or from the necessities of foreign manufactures. Gentle- 
men are incredulous as to the attempts of foreign merchants ana 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 19 

manufacturers to accomplish the destruction of ours. Why 
should they not make such attempts ? If the Scottish manufac- 
turer, by surcharging our market, in one year, with the article 
of cotton bagging, for example, should so reduce the price as 
to discourage and put down the home manufacture, he would 
secure to himself the monoply of the supply. And now, having 
the exclusive possession of the market, perhaps for a long term 
of years, he might be more than indemnifieii for his first loss, 
in the subsequent rise in the price of the article. What have 
we not seen under our own eyes! The competition for the 
transportation of the mail, between this place and Baltimore, so 
excited, that, to obtain it, an individual offered, at great loss, 
to carry it a whole year for one dollar ! His calculation, no 
doubt, was that, by driving his competitor off the road, and 
securing to himself the carriage of the mail, he would be after- 
wards able to repair his original loss by new contracts with the 
department. But the necessities of foreign manufacturers, 
without imputing to them any sinister design, may oblige them 
to throw into our markets tlie fabrics which have accumulated 
on their hands, in consequence of obstruction in the ordinary 
vents, or from over-calculation ; and the forced sales, at losing 
prices, may prostrate our establishments. From this view of 
the subject, it follows, that, if we would place the industry of 
our country upon a solid and unshakable foundation, we must 
adopt the protecting policy, which has every where succeeded, 
and reject that which would abandon it, which has every 
where failed. 



ON AFRICAN COLONIZATION. 

Before the American Colonizalion Society, January 20, 
1827. 

This Society is well aware, I repeat, that they cannot touch 
the subject of slavery. But it is no objection to their sclieme, 
limited as it is exclusively to those free people of color who 
are willing to migrate, that it admits of indefinite extension and 
application, by those, who alone, having the competent author- 
ity, may choose to adopt and apply it. Our object has been to 
point out the way, to show that colonization is practicable, and 
to leave it to those Stales or individuals, who may be pleased 
to engage in the object, to prosecute it. We have demonstrated 
that a colony may be planted in Africa, by the fact that an 
American colony there exists. The problem which has so long 



20 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

and so deeply interested the thoughts of good and patriotic men 
is solved. A country and a home have been found, to wliich 
the African race may be sent, to the promotion of their happi- 
ness and our own. 

But, Mr. Vice-President, I shall not rest contented with the 
fact of the establishment of the colony, conclusive as it ought 
to be deemed, of the |)racticability of our purpose. I shall 
proceed to show, by reference to indisputable statistical details 
and calculations, that it is within the compass of reasonable 
human means. I am sensible of the tediousness of all arith- 
metical data, but 1 will endeavour to simplify them as much as 
possible. It will be borne in mind that th.e aim of the society 
is to establish in Africa a colony of the free African population 
of the United States, to an extent wliich shall be beneficial both 
to Africa and America, 'i^'he whole free colored population of 
the United States amounted in 1790, to fifty-nine thousand four 
hundred and eighty-one; in 1800, to one hundred and ten 
thousand and seventy-two ; in 1810, to one hundred and eighty- 
six lliousand four hundred and forty-six ; and in 1830, to two 
luunlred and thirty-three thousand five hundred and thirty. The 
ratio of annual increase during the first term of ten years was 
about eight and a half per cent, per annum; during the second 
about seven per cent, per annum ; and during the third, a little 
more than two and a half. The very great difi'erence in the 
rate of annual increase during those several terms, may probably 
be accounted for by the etTect of the number of voluntary 
emancipations operating with more influence upon the total 
smaller amount of free colored persons at the first of those pe- 
riods, and by the*facts of the insurrection in St. Domingo, and 
the acquisition of Louisiana, both of which, occurring during 
the first and second terms, added considerably to the number 
of our free colored population. 

Of all descriptions of our population, that of the free colored, 
taken in the aggregate, is the least prolific, because of the 
checks arising fr. m vice and want. During the ten years be- 
tween 1810 and 1820, when no extraneous causes existed to 
prevent a fair con^patition in the increase between the slave and 
the free African race, the former increased at the rate of nearly 
three per cent, per annum, whilst the latter did not much exceed 
two and a half. Hereafter it may be safely assumed, and I 
venture to predict will not be contradicted by the return of the 
next census, that the increase of the free black population will 
not surpass two and a half per cent, per annum. Their amount 
at the last census, being two hundred and thirty-three thousand 
five hundred and thirty, for the sake of round numbers, their 
annual increase may be assumed to be six thousand at the pre- 



ASHLAND TKXT BOOK. 21 

sent lime. Now if ihis number coukl be annually transported 
from the United States during a term of years, it is evident that, 
at llie end of that term, the parent capital will not have increas- 
ed, but will have been kept down, at least to what it was at 
the commencement of the term. Is it practicable, then, to 
colonize annually six thousand persons from the United States, 
%vithout materially impairing or affecting any of the great inter- 
ests of the United States ? This is the question presented to 
the judgments of the legislative authorities of our country. This 
is the whole scheme of the society. From its actual experience, 
derived from the expenses which have been incurred in trans- 
porting the persons already sent to Africa, the entire average 
expense of each colonist, young and old, including passage 
juoney and subsistence, may be stated at twenty dollars per 
liead. There is reason to believe that it may be reduced con- 
siderably below that sum. Estimating that to be the expense, 
the total cost of transporting six thousand souls annually to 
Africa would be one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The 
tonnage requisite to eflect the object, calculating two persons to 
every five tons, (which is the provision of existing law,) would 
be fifteen thousand tons. But, as each vessel could probably 
make two voyages in the year, it may be reduced to seven 
thousand five hundred. And as both our mercantile and military 
marine might be occasionally employed on this collateral service, 
without injury to the main object of the voyage, a further abatc- 
iiient might be safely made in the aggregate amount of the 
necessary tonnage. The navigation concerned in the commerce 
between the colony and the United States, (and it already begins 
to supply subjects of an interesting trade,) might be incidentally 
employed to the same end. 

Is the annual expenditure of a sum no larger than one hun- 
dred and twenty thousand dollars, and the annual employment 
of seven thousand five hundred tons of shipping, too much for 
^reasonable exertion, considering the magnitude of the object in 
view ? Are they not, on the contrary, within the compass of 
moderate efli'orts ? 

Here is the whole scheme of the society — a project which 
has been pronounced visionary by those who have never given 
themselves the trouble lo examine it, but to which I believe 
most unbiased men will yield their cordial assent, after they 
have investigated it. 

Limited as the project is, by the society, to a colony to be 
formed by tlie free and unconstrained consent of free persons 
of color, it is no objection, but on the contrary, a great recom- 
mendation of the plan, that it admits of being taken upand ap- 
plied on a scale of much more comprehensive utility. The 



22 ASHLAND TKXT BOOK. 

society knows, and it afibrcl.s just cause of felicitation, that all 
or any one of the Slates which tolerate slavery, may carry the 
scheme of colonization into elTect, in regard to the slaves within 
their respective limits, and thus ultimately rid themselves of a 
universally acknowledged curse. A reference to the results of 
the several enumerations of the population of the United Stales 
will incontestably prove the practicability of its application on 
the more extensive scale. The slave population of the United 
Stales amounted in 1790, to six hundred and ninety-seven thou- 
sand six hundred and ninety-seven; in 1800, to eight hundred 
and ninety-six thousand eight hundred and forty-nine ; in 1810, 
to eleven hundred and ninety-one thousand tiiree hundred and 
sixty-four; and in 1820, to fifteen hundred and thirty-eight 
thousand one hundred and twenty-eight. The rate of annual 
increase, (rejecting fractions, and taking the integer to which 
they make the nearest approach,) during the first term of ten 
years, was not quite three per centum per annum, during the 
second, a little more than three per centum per annum, and 
during the third, a little less than three per centum. The mean 
ratio of increase for the whole period of thirty years was very 
little more than three per centum per annum. During the first 
two periods, the native stock was augmented by importations 
from Africa, in those States which continued to tolerate them, 
and by the acquisition of Louisiana. Virginia, to her eternal 
honor, abolished the abominable traffic among the earliest acts 
of her self-government. The last term alone presents the na- 
tural increase of the capital, unafiected by any extraneous 
causes. That authorizes, as a safe assumption, that the future 
increase will not exceed three per centum per annum. As our 
population increases, the value of slave labor will diminish, in 
consequence of the superior advantages in the employment of 
free labor. And when the value of slave labor shall be mate- 
rially lessened, either by the multiplication of the supply of 
slaves beyond the demand, or by the competition between slave 
and free labor, the annual increase of slaves will be reduced, 
in consequence of the abatement of the motives to provide for 
and rear the offspring. 

There is a moral fitness in the idea of returning to Africa her 
children, whose ancestors have been torn from her by tlie ruth- 
less hand of fraud and violence. Transplanted in a foreign land, 
they will carry back to their native soil the rich fruits of reli- 
gion, civilization, law, and liberty. May it not be one of the 
great designs of the Ruler of the universe, (whose ways are 
often inscrutable by short-sighted mortals,) thus to transform an 
original crime into a signal bk'ssing, to that most unfortunate 
portion of the globe. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 23 



DEFENCE OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM. 

Ill the Senate of the United States, February 2d, 3(/, and 
Qth, 1832. 

Eight years ago, it was my painful duty to present to the 
other House of Congress, an unexnggerated picture of the 
general distress pervading the whole land. We must all yet 
remember some of its frightful features. We all know tliat the 
people were then oppressed and borne down by an enormous 
load of debt ; that the value of property was at the lowest point 
of depression ; that ruinous sales and sacrifices were every 
where made of real estate ; that stop laws, and relief laws, and 
paper money were adopted to save the people from impending 
destruction ; that a deficit in the public revenue existed, which 
compelled government to seize upon, and divert from its legiti- 
mate object the appropriations to the sinking fund, to redeem 
the national debt ; and that our commerce and navigation were 
threatened with a complete paralysis. In short, sir, if 1 were 
to select any term of seven years since the adoption of the pre 
sent constitution which exhibited a scene of the most wide- 
spread dismay and desolation, it would be exactly that term of 
seven years which immediately preceded the establishment of 
the tariff" of 1824. 

1 have now lo perform the more pleasing task of exhibiting 
an imperfect sketch of the existing state of the unparalleled 
prosperity of the country. On a general survey, we behold 
cultivation extended, the arts flourishing, the face of the country 
improved, our people fully and profitably employed, and the 
public countenance exhibiting tranquillity, contentment and hap- 
piness. And if we descend into particulars, we have the agreea- 
ble contemplation of a people out of debt; land rising slowly 
in value, but in a secure and salutary degree ; a ready though 
not extravagant market for all tiie surplus productions of our 
industry; innumerable flocks and herds browsing and gambol- 
ing on ten thousand hills and plains, covered with rich and ver- 
dant grasses ; our cities expanded, and whole villages springing 
up, as it were, by enchantment; our exports and imports 
increased and increasing ; our tonnage, foreign and coastwise, 
swelling and fully occupied ; the rivers of our interior animated 
by the perpetual thunder and lightning of countless steam-boats ; 
the currency sound and abundant; the public debt of two wars 
nearly redeemed ; and, to crown all, tlie public treasury over- 
ilovviug, embarrassing Congress, not lo find subjects of taxa- 



24 ASHLAND TCXT BOOK. 

tion, but to select the objects which shall be liberated from the 
impost. Tf the term of seveu years were to be selected, of tlie 
greatest prosperity which this people have enjoyed since the 
establishment of their present constitution, it would be exactly 
that period of seven years which immediately followed the 
])assage of the taritl' of 1824. 

This transformation of the condition of the country from 
gloom and distress .to brightness and prosperity, has been 
maiidy the work of American legislation, fostering American 
industry, instead of allowing it to be controlled by foreign legis- 
lation, cherishing foreign industry. 

Thus, sir, has this great system of protection been gradually 
built, stone upon stone, and step by step, from the fourth of 
July, 1789, down to the present period. In every stage of 
i:s progress it has received the deliberate sanction of Congress. 
A vast majority of the people of the United States has approved 
and continue to approve it. Every chief magistrate of the 
United States, from Washington to the present, in some form 
or other, has given to it the authority of his name ; and however 
the opinions of the existing President are interpreted South of 
Mason's and Dixon's line, on the north they are at least under- 
stood to favor the establishment oi a judicious tarilT. 

The question tiierefore, which we are now called upon to 
determine is, not whether we shall establish a new and doubtful 
system of policy, just proposed, and for the first time presented 
to our consideration, but whether we shall break down and 
destroy a long established sj^stem, patiently and carefully built 
up and sanctioned, during a series of years, again and again, by 
tlie nation and its highest and most revered authorities. 

When gendemen have succeeded in their design of an im- 
mediate or gradual destruction of the American System, what 
is their substitute ? Free trade ! Free trade ! The call for free 
trade is as unavailing as the cry of a spoiled child, in its nurse's 
arms, for the moon, or the stars that glitter in the firmament of 
heaven. It never has existed, it never will exist. Trade im- 
plies, at least two parties. To be free, it should be fair, equal 
and reciprocal. But if we throw our ports wide open to the 
admission of foreign productions, free of all duty, what ports 
of any other foreign nation shall we find open to the free admis- 
sion of our surplus produce ? We may break down all barriers 
to free trade on our part, but the work will not be complete until 
foreign powers shall have removed theirs. There would be 
f 3edom on one side, and restrictions, prohibitions and exclusions 
on the other. The bolts, and the bars, and the chains of all other 
nations will remain undisturbed. It is, indeed, possible, that 
our industry and commerce would accommodate themselves to 



ASHLAND TEXT COOK. 25 

t'lus unequal and unjust, state of things ; for, such is the flexi- 
bility of owr nature, that it bends itself to all circumstances. 
The wretched prisoner incarcerated in a jail, after a long time 
becomes reconciled to his solitude, and regularly notches down 
the passing days of his confinement. 

Gentlemen deceive themselves. It is not free trade that they 
are recommending to our acceptance. It is, in effect, the British 
colonial system that we are invited to adopt, and if their policy 
prevail, it will lead substantially to the re-colonization of these 
States, under the commercial dominion of Great Britain. And 
whom do we find some of the principal supporters, out of Con- 
gress, of this foreign system ? Mr. President, there are some 
foreigners who always remain exotics, and never become na- 
turaUzed in our country; whilst, happily, there are many others 
who readily attach themselves to our principles and our institu- 
tions. The honest, patient and industrious German readily 
unites with our people, establishes himself upon some of our 
fat land, fills his capacious barn, and enjoys in tranquillity, the 
abundant fruits which his diligence gathers around him, always 
ready to fly to the standard of his adopted country, or of its 
laws, when called by the duties of patriotism. The gay, the 
versatile, the philosophic Frenchman, accommodating himself 
cheerfully to all the vicissitudes of life, incorporates himself 
without difficulty in our society. But, of all foreigners, none 
amalgamate themselves so quickly with our people as the na- 
tives of the Emerald Isle. In some of the visions which have 
passed through my imagination, I have supposed that Ireland 
was originally part and parcel of this continent, and that, by 
some extraordinary convulsion of nature, it was torn from 
America, and drifting across the ocean, was placed in the un- 
fortunate vicinity of Great Britain. The same open-heartedness ; 
the same generous hospitality ; the same careless and uncalcu- 
lating indifference about human life, characterize the inhabitants 
of both countries. Kentucky has been sometimes called the 
Ireland of America. And I have no doubt, that if the current 
of emigration were reversed, and set from America upon the 
shores of Europe, instead of bearing from Europe to America, 
every American emigrant to Ireland would there find, as every 
Irish emigrant here finds, a hearty welcome and a happy home! 
"I will now, INIr. President, proceed to a more particular 
consideration of the arguments urged against the Protective 
System, and an inquiry into its practical operation, especially 
on the cotton growing country. And as I wish to state and 
meet the argument fairly, I invite the correction of my state- 
ment of it, if necessary. It is alleged that the system operates 
prejudicially to the cotton planter, by diminishing the foreign 
2 



26 A551ILAND Tl.XT BOOK. 

demand for his staple ; lliat we rannot sfll to Croat Britain 
unless we buy from lier; that the import duty is eqjiivaU'iil 
to an export duty, and falls upon the cotton grower ; that SoiUli 
Carolina pays a disproportionate quota of the public revenue; 
liiat an abandonment of the protective policy would lead to an 
augmentation of our exports of an amount not less than one 
liundred and fifty millions of dollars; and finally, that the South 
cannot partake of the advantages of manufacturing, if there be 
any. Let us examine these various propositions in detail. 1. 
'i'hat the foreign demand for cotton is diminished, and that we 
cannot sell to Great Britain unless we buy from her. The de- 
mand of both our great foreign customers is constantly and 
annually increasing. It is true, tiiat the ratio of the increase 
may not be equal to that of production ; but this is owing to the 
fact that the power of producing the raw material is much 
greater, and is, therefore, conslandy in advance of the power 
of consumption. A single fact will illustrate. The average 
produce of laborers engaged iii the cultivation of cotton, may be 
estimated at five bales, or fifteen hundred weight to the hand. 
Supposing the annual average consumption of each individual 
who uses cotton cloth to be five pounds, one hand can produce 
enough of the raw material to clothe three hundred. 

The argument comprehends two errors, one of fact and the 
other of principle. It assumes that we do not in fact purchase 
of Great Britain. What is the true state of the case? There 
are certain, but very few articles which it is thought sound 
policy requires that we should manufacture at home, and on 
these the tarilT operates. But, with respect to all the rest, and 
much the larger number of articles, of taste, of fashion, and 
utility, they are subject to no other than revenue duties, and are 
freely introduced. I have before me from the treasury a state- 
ment of our imports from England, Scotland and Ireland, includ- 
ing ten years, preceding the last, and three quarters of the last 
year, from which it will appear that, although there are some 
fluctuations in the amount of the different years, the largest 
amount imported in any one year has been since the tariff of 
1824, and that the last year's importation, when the returns of 
the fourth quarter shall be received, will probably be the greatest 
in the whole term of eleven years. 

Now, if it be admitted tliat there is a less amount of ihe 
protected articles imported from Great Britain, she may be, 
and probably is, compensated for the deficiency, by the incieas- 
ed consumption in America of the articles of her industry not 
falling within the scope of the policy of our protection. The 
establishment of manufactures among us excites the creation of 
wealth, and this gives new powers of consumption, which are 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 27 

gratified b}' the purcliase of foreign objects. A poor nation 
can never be a great consuming nation. lis poverty will limit 
its consumption to bare subsistence. 

The erroneous principle which the argument includes, is, that 
it devolves on us the duty .of taking care that Great Britain 
shall be enabled to purchase from us without exacting from 
Great Britain the corresponding duty. If it be true, on one 
side, that nations are bound to shape their policy in reference to 
the ability of foreign powers, it must be true on both sides of 
the AUantic. And this reciprocal obligation ought to be em- 
phatically regarded towards the nation supplying the raw niate- 
rial, by the manufacturing nation, because the industry of the 
latter gives four or five values to what had been produced by the 
industry of the former. 

But, does Great Britain practice towards us upon the princi- 
ples which we are now required to observe in regard to her ? 
The exports to the United Kingdom, as appears from the same 
treasury statement just adverted to, during eleven years, from 
1821 to 1831, and exclusive of the fourth quarter of the last 
year, fall short of the amount of imports by upwards of forty- 
six millions of dollars, and the total amount, when the returns 
of that quarter are received, will exceed fifty millions of dollars ! 
It is surprising how we have been able to sustain, for so long 
a time, a trade so very unequal. We must have been abso- 
lutely ruined by it, if the unfavorable balance had not been 
neutralized by more profitable commerce with other parts of 
the world. Of all nations. Great Britain has the least cause to 
complain of the trade between the two countries. Our imports 
from that single power are nearly one-third of the entire amount 
of our importations from all foreign countries together. Great 
Britain constantly acts on the maxim of buying only what she 
wants and cannot produce, and selling to foreign nations the 
utmost amount she can. In conformity with this maxim, she 
excludes articles of prime necessity produced by us — equally, 
if not more necessary than any of her industry, which we tax, 
although the admission of those articles would increase our 
ability to purchase from her, according to the argument of gen- 
tlemen. 

If we purchased still less from Great Britain than we do, and 
our conditions were reversed, so that the value of her imports 
from this country exceeded that of her exports to it, she would 
only then be compelled to do what we have so long done, and 
what South Carolina does, in her trade with Kentucky, make 
up for the unfavorable balance by trade with other places and 
countries. How does she now dispose of the one hundred and 
sixty millions of dollars worth of cotton fabrics, which she 



28 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

annually sells ? Of that amount the United States do not pur- 
chase five per cent. What becomes of the other ninety-five per 
cent? Is it not sold to other powers, and would not their mar- 
kets remain, if ours were totally shut? Would she not con- 
tinue, as she now finds it her interest, to purchase the raw 
material from us, to supply those markets? Would she be 
guilty of the folly of depriving herself of markets to the amount 
of upwards of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, because 
we refused her a market for some eight or ten millions ? 

But if there were diminution of the British demand for cotton 
equal to the loss of a market for the few British fabrics which 
are within the scope of our protective policy, the question 
would still remain, whether the cotton planter is not amply 
indemnified by the creation of additional demand elsewhere ? 
With respect to the cotton-grower, it is the tolcdity of the de- 
mand, and not its distribution, which afiects his interests. If 
any system of policy will augment the aggregate of the demand, 
that system is favorable to his interests, although its tendency 
may be to vary the theatre of the demand. It could not, for 
example, be injurious to him, if, instead of Great Britain cffti- 
tinuinu- to receive the entire quantity of cotton which she now 
does, two or three hundred thousand bales of it were taken to 
ti\e other side of the channel, and increased to that extent, the 
French demand. It would be better for him, because it ia 
always better to have several markets than one. Now, if, in- 
stead of a transfer to the opposite side of the channel, of those 
two or three hundred thousand bales, they are transported to 
the northern States, can that be injurious to the cotton-grower? 
Is it not better for him ? Is it not better to have a market at 
home, unaffected by war or other foreign causes, for that amount 
of his staple ? 

If the establishment of American manufactures, therefore, had 
the sole effect of creating a new and an American demand for 
cotton, exactly to the same extent in which it lessened the 
British demand, there would be no just cause of complaint 
against the tariff. The gain in one place would precisely equal 
the loss in the other. But the true stale of the matter is much 
more favorable to the cotton-grower. It is calculated that the 
cotton manufactories of the United States absorb at least two 
hundred thousand bales of cotton annually. I believe it to be 
more. The two ports of Boston and Providence alone received, 
during the last year, near one hundred and ten tiiousand bales. 
The amount is annually increasing. The raw material of that 
two hundred thousand bales is worth six millions, and there 
is an additional value conferred by the manufacturer of eighteen 
millions; it being generally calculated that, in such cotton 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 29 

fabrics as we are in the habit of making, the manufacture con- 
stitiUes ihree-fourlhs of the value of the article. If, therefore, 
these iwenty-four millions worth of cotton fabrics were not 
made in the United States, but were manufactured in Great 
Britain, in order to obtain them, we should have to add to the 
already enormous disproportion between the amount of our 
imports and exports, in the trade with Great Britain, the further 
sum of twenty-four millions, or deducting the price of the raw 
material, eighteen millions ! And v/ill gentlemen tell me how 
it would he possible fur this country to sustain such a ruinous 
trade ? From all that portion of ihe United States lying North 
and East of James River, and West of the mountains, Great 
Britain receives comparatively nothing. How would it be pos- 
sible for the inhabitants of that largest portion of our territory, 
to supply themselves with cotton fabrics, if they were brought 
from England exclusively! They could not do it. But for 
the existence of the American manufacture, they would be com- 
pelled greatly to curtail their supplies, if not absolutely to suffer 
in their comforts. By its existence at home, the circle of those 
exchanges is created which reciprocally difl'uses among all who 
at^ embraced within it the productions of their respective in- 
dustry. The cotton-grower sells the raw material to the manu- 
facturer ; he buys the iron, the bread, the meal, the coal, and 
the countless number of objects of his consumption from his 
fellow-citizens, and they in turn purchase his fabrics. Putting 
it upon the ground merely of supplying those with necessary 
articles who could not otherwise obtain them, ought there to be, 
from any quarter, an objection to the only system by which 
that object can be accomplished ? But can there be any doubt, 
with those who will reflect, that the actual amount of cotton 
consumed is increased by tlie home manulacture ? Tlie main 
argument of gentlemen is founded upon the idea of mutual ability 
resulting from mutual exchanges. They would furnish an ability 
to foreign nations by purchasing from them, and I to our own 
people, by exchanges at home. If the American manufacture 
were discontinued, and that of England were to take its place, 
how would she sell the additional quantity of twenty-four mil- 
lions of cotton goods which we now make ? To us ? That has 
been shown to be impracticable. To other foreign nations? 
She has already pushed her supplies to them to the utmost ex- 
tent. The ultimate consequence would then be, to diminish 
the total consumption of cotton, to say nothing now of the re- 
duction of price that would take place by throwing into the ports 
of Great Britain the two hundred thousand bales, which no 
longer being manufactured in the United States would go thither. 



30 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

2. That the import chity is equivalent lo an export duty, 
and falls on the producer ol' cotton. 

The framcrs of our Constitution, by granting tlie power to 
Congress to lay imports, and prohil)iting that of laying an export 
duly, manifested that they did not regard them as equivalent. 
Nor does the common sense of mankind. An export duty fastens 
upon, and incorporates itself with, tlie article on which it is 
laid. The article cannot escape from it — it pursues and follows 
it, wherever the article goes ; and if in the foreign market, the 
supply is above or just equal to the demand, the amount of the 
export duly will be a clear deduction to the exporter from the 
price of the article. But an import duty on a foreign article 
leaves the exporter of the domestic article free. 1st, to import 
specie; 2dly, goods which are free from the protecting duty; 
or, 3dly, such goods as being chargeable with the protecting 
duty, he can sell at home, and throw the duty on the consumer. 

But, it is confidently argued that the import duty falls upon 
the grower of cotton ; and the case has been put in debate, and 
again and again in conversation, of the South Carolina planter, 
who exports one hundred bales of cotton to Liverpool, exchanges 
them for one hundred bales of merchandise, and, when he brings 
them home, being compelled to leave at the custom-house forty 
bales in the form of duties. The argument is founded on the 
assumption that a duty of forty per cent, amounts to a subtrac- 
tion of forty from the one hundred bales of merchandise. The 
first objection to it is, that it supposes a case of barter, which 
never occurs. If it be replied, that it nevertheless occurs in 
the operations of commerce, the answer would be that, since 
the export of Carolina cotton is chiefly made by New York or 
foreign merchants, the loss stated, if it really accrued, would 
fall upon them, and not upon the planter. But, to test the cor- 
rectness of the hypothetical case, let us suppose that the duty, 
instead of forty per cent., should be one hundred and fifty, 
which is asserted to be the duty in some cases. 'I'hen, the planter 
would not only lose the whole hundred bales of merchandise, 
which he had gotten for his hundred bales of cotton, but he 
would have to purchase, with other means, an additional fifty 
bales, in order to enable him to pay the duties accruing on llie 
proceeds of the cotton. Another answer is, that if the producer 
of cotton in America, exchanged against English fabrics pays 
the duty, the producer of those fabrics also pays it, and then 
it is twice paid. Such must be the consequence, unless the 
principle is true on one side of the Adantic, and false on the 
oilier. The true answer is, that the exporter of an article, if 
he invests its proceeds in a foreign market, takes care to make 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 31 

the iavestmcnt in such merchandise as, when brought home, he 
can pcU with a fair profit; and consequently, tlie consumer 
woiikl pay the original cost, and charges and profit. 

3. Tlie next objection to the American (System is, that it 
subjects South Carolina to the payment of an undue proportion 
of the public revenue. The basis of this objection is the assump- 
tion, sliown to have been erroneous, that llie producer of llie 
exports from this country pays the duty on its imports, instead 
of llie consumer of those imports. The amount which Soutli 
Carolina really contributes to the public revenue, no more than 
any other State can be precisely ascertained. It depends upon 
her consumption of articles paying duties, and we may make 
an approximation sufficient for all practical purposes. The 
cotton planters of the valley of the Mississippi with whom 
1 am acquainted, generally expend about one-third of their 
income in the support of their families and plantations. On 
this subject I hold in my hand.s a statement from a friend of 
mine, of great accuracy, and a member of the Senate. Accord- 
ing to this statement, in a crop of ten thousand dollars, the 
expenses may fluctuate between two thousand eight hundred 
dollars and three thousand two hundred dollars. Of this sum, 
about one-fourth, from seven to eight hundred dollars, may be 
laid out in articles paying the protecting duty ; the residue is 
disbursed for provisions, mules, horses, oxen, wages of over- 
seer, &c. Estimating the exports of South Carolina gt eight 
millions, one-third is two millions six hundred and sixty-six 
thousand six hundred and sixty-two dollars ; of which one- 
fourth will be six hundred and sixty-six thousand six hundred 
and sixty-six and two-thirds dollars. Now supposing the pro- 
tecting duty to be fifty per cent., and that it all enters into the 
price of the article, the amount paid by South Carolina would 
only be three hundred and thirty-three thousand three hundred 
and thirty-three and one third dollars. But the total revenue 
of the United Slates may be stated at twenty-five millions, of 
which the proportion of South Carolina, whatever standard, 
whether of wealth or population, be adopted, would be about 
one million. Of course, on this view of the subject, she actually 
pays only about one-third of her fair and legitimate share. I 
repeat, that I have no personal knowledge of the habits of actual 
expenditure in South Carolina ; they may be greater than I 
have stated, in respect to other parts of the cotton country ; 
but if they are, that fact does not ari.se from any defect in the 
system of public policy. 



32 ASIILAISD lEXJ BOOK. 

ON THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

Senate of the United States, 1832. 

No subject which had presented itself to the present, or per- 
haps any preceding Congress, was of greater magnitude than 
that of the public lands. Tliere was another, indeed, which 
possessed a more exciting and absorbing interest — but the ex- 
citement was happily but temporary in its nature. Long after 
we shall cease to be agitated by the tariff, ages after our manu- 
factures shall have acquired a stability and perfection which 
will enable them successfully to cope with the manufactures of 
any other country, the public lands will remain a subject of 
deep and enduring interest. \i\ whatever view we contemplate 
them, there is no question of such vast importance. As to their 
extent, there is public land enough to found an empire; stretch- 
ing across the immense continent, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific ocean, from the Gulf of Mexico to the north-western 
lakes, the quantity, according to official surveys and estimates, 
amounting to the prodigious sum of one billion and eighty mil- 
lions of acres ! As to the duration of the interest regarded as a 
source of comfort to our people, and of public income — during 
the last year, when the greatest quantity was sold that ever in 
one year had been previously sold, it amounted to less than 
three millions of acres, producing three millions and a half of 
dollars. Assuming ihat year as affording the standard rate at 
which the lands will be annually sold, it would require three 
liuudred years to dispose of them. But the sales will probably 
be accelerated from increased population and other causes. We 
may safely, however, anticipate that long, if not centuries after 
the present day, the representatives of our children's children 
may be deliberating in the halls of Congress, on laws relating to 
the public lands. 

The subject, in other points of view, challenged the fullest 
attention of an American statesman. If there were any one 
circumstance more than all others which distinguish our happy- 
condition from that of the nations of the old world, it was the 
possession of this vast national property, and the resources 
which it afforded to our people and our government. No 
European nation, (possibly with the exception of Russia,) com- 
m^nded such an ample resource. With respect to the otiier 
r.'pviblics of this continent, we have no information that any of 
then have yd adopted a regular system of previous survey and 
subsequent sale of their wild lands, in convenient tracts, well 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. ' 33 

defined, and adapted to the wants of all. On the contrary, the 
probability is, that they adhere to the ruinous and mad system of 
old Spain, according to which large unsurveyed districts are 
granted to favorite individuals, prejudicial to tliem, who often 
sink under the incumbrance and die in poverty, whilst the 
regular current of emigiation is checked and diverted from its 
legitimate channels. 

If the power and the principle of the proposed distribution 
be satisfactory to the Senate, I think tlie objects cannot fail to 
be equally so. They are education, internal improvements, 
and colonization — all great and beneficent objects — all national 
in their nature. No mind can be cultivated and improved ; 
no work of internal improvement can be executed in any part 
of the Union, nor any person of color transported from any of 
its ports, in which the whole Union is not interested. The 
prosperity of the whole is an aggregate of the prosperity of 
the parts. 

The States, each judging for itself, will select among the 
objects enumerated in the bill, that which comports best with 
its own policy. There is no compulsion in the choice. Some 
will prefer, perhaps, to apply the fund to the extinction of 
debt, now burdensome, created for internal improvement ; some 
to new objects of internal improvement; others to education; 
and others again to colonization. It may be supposed possible 
that the Slates will divert the fund from the specified purposes: 
but against such a misapplication we have, in the first place, 
the security which arises out of their presumed good faith ; 
and, in the second, the power to withhold subsequent, if there 
has been any abuse in previous appropriation." 



ON THE COMPROMISE ACT. 

United Slates Senate, 1833. 

I have been accused of ambition in presenting this measure. 
Ambition! inordinate ambition! If I had thought of myself 
only, I should have never brought it forward. I know well 
the perils to which I expose myself; the risk of alienating 
faithful and valued friends, with but little prospect of making 
new ones, if any new ones could compensate for the loss of 
those whom we have long tried and loved ; and the honest 
misconceptions both of friends and foes. Ambition ! If I had 
listened to its soft and seducing whispers ; If I had yielded 
myself to the dictates of a cold, calculating, and prudential 



34 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

policy, I would have stood still and unmoved. I might even 
have silently gazed on the raging storm, enjoyed its loudest 
thunders, and left those who are charged with the care of the 
vessel of Slate, to conduct it as they could. 1 have been iiere- 
tofore often unjustly accused of ambition. Low, grovelling 
souls, who are utterly incapable of elevating themselves to the 
higher and nobler duties of pure patriotism — beings who, for 
ever keeping their own selfisii aims in view, decide all public 
measures by their presumed inlluence on their aggrandizement, 
judge me by the venal rule which they prescribe to themselves. 
I have given to tlie winds those false accusations, as I consign 
that which now impeaches my motives. I have no desire for 
office, not even the highest. The most exalted is but a prison, 
in which the incarcerated incumbent daily receives his cold, 
heartless visitants, marks his weary hours, and is cut off from 
the practical enjoyment of all the blessings of genuine freedom. 
I am no candidate for any office in the gift of the people of 
these States, united or separated ; I never wish, never expect to 
be. Pass this bill, tranquilize the country, restore confidence 
and affection in the Union, and I am willing to go home to Ash- 
land, and renounce public service for ever. I should there 
find, in its groves, under its shades, on its lawns, amidst my 
flocks and herds, in the bosom of my family, sincerity and 
truth, attachment and fidelity, and gratitude, which I have not 
always found in the walks of public life Yes, I have am- 
bition, but it is the ambition of being the humble instrument, in 
the hands of Providence, to reconcile a divided people, once 
more to revive concord and harmony in a distracted land — the 
pleasing ambition of contemplaiing the glorious spectacle of a 
free, united, prosperous, and fraternal people !" 

Let me, in a few words, present to the Senate what are my 
own views as to the structure of this government. I hold that no 
powers can legitimately be exercised under it but such as are 
expressly delegated, and those which are necessary to carry 
these into effect. Sir, the executive power, as existing in this 
government, is not to be traced to the notions of Montesquieu, 
or of any other writer of that class, in the abstract nature of 
the executive power. Neither is the legislative nor the judicial 
power to be decided by any such reference. These several 
powers with us, whatever they maybe elsewhere, are just what 
the Constitution has made them, and nothing more. And as to 
the general clauses in which reference is made to either, they 
are to be controlled and interpreted by those where these several 
powers are specially delegated, otherwise the executive will 
become a great vortex that must end in swallowing up all the 
rest. Nor will the judicial power be any longer restrained by 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 35 

the reslraining clauses in the Constitution, which relate to its 
exercise. What then, it will be asked, does tliis clause, that 
tiie President shall see that the laws are faithfully executed, 
mean ? Sirs, it means nothing more nor less than this, that 
if resistance is made to the laws, he shall take care that resist- 
ance shall cease. Congress, by the 1st article of the 8tii sec- 
tion of the Constitution, is required to provide for calling out the 
militia to execute the laws, in case of resistance. Sir, it might 
as well be contended under that clause, that Congress have 
the power of determining what are, and what are not the laws 
of the land. Congress has the power of calling out the mili- 
tary ; well sir, what is the President, by the Constitution? He 
is commander of the army and navy of the United States, and 
of the militia when called out into actual service. When, then, 
we are here told that he is clothed with the whole physical 
power of the nation, and when we are afterwards told, that we 
must take care that the laws are faithfully executed, is it possi- 
ble that any man can be so lost to the love of liberty, as not 
to admit that this goes no farther than to remove any resistance 
which may be made to tlie execution of the laws ? We have 
established a system in which power has been carefully divided 
among different departments of the government. And we have 
been told a thousand times, that this division is indispensable 
as a safe-guard to civil liberty. We have designated the de- 
partments, and have established in each, officers to examine the 
power belonging to each. The President, it is true, presides over 
the whole ; his eye surveys the whole extent of tlie system in 
all its movements. But has he power to enter into the courts, 
for example, and tell them what is to be done ? Or may he 
come here, and tell us the same ? Or when we have made a 
law, can he withhold tlie power necessary to its practical effect? 
He moves, it is true, in a high, a glorious sphere. It is his to 
watcii over the whole with a paternal eye; and, when any 
one wheel of the vast machine is for a time interrupted by the 
occurrence of invasion or rebellion, it is his care to propel its 
movements, and to furnish it with the requisite means of per- 
forming its appropriate duty in its own place. 

That this is the true interpretation of the constitutional clause 
to which I have alluded, is inferred from the total silence of all 
contemporaneous expositions of that instrument on the subject. 
I have myself (and when it was not in my power personalljs 
have caused others to aid me,) made researches into the num- 
bers of the Federalist; the debates in the Virginia convention, 
and in the conventions of other States, as well as all other 
sources of inform.ation to which I could obtain access, and I 
have not, in a solitary instance, found the slightest color for the 



36 AtllLAND TEXT BOOK. 

claims set up in these most extraordinary times for the Presi- 
dent, that he has authority to afford or witlihold at pleasure 
the means of enforcing the laws, and to superintend and control 
an officer charged with a specific duly, made by the law exclu- 
sively his. But, sir, I have found some authorities which 
strongly militate against any such claim. If the doctrine be 
indeed true, tlien it is most evident that there is no longer any 
other control over our atfairs than that exerted by the President. 
If it be true that when a duty is by law specifically assigned to 
a particular officer, the President may go into his office and con- 
trol him in the manner of performing it, then is it most manifest 
that all barriers for tlie safety of the treasury are gone. Sir, 
it is that union of the purse and the sword, in the hand of one 
man, which constitutes the best definition of tyranny which our 
language can irive. 



ON THE LAND DISTRIBUTION. 

Jn the Senate of the United Stales, December 24, 1835. 

I feel it incumbent on me to make a brief explanation of the 
highly important measure which I have now the honor to pro- 
pose. The bill, which I desire to introduce, provides for the 
distribution of the proceeds of the public lands in the years 1833, 
'34, '35, '3G and '37, among the twenty-four States of the 
Union, and conforms substaniially to that which passed in 1833. 
It is therefore of a temporary character ; but if it shall be found 
10 have a salutary operation, it will be in the power of a future 
Congress to give it an indefinite continuance, and, if otherwise, 
it will expire by its own terms. In the event of war unfortunate- 
ly breaking out with any fore'gn power, the bill is to cease, and 
the fund which it distributes is to be applied to the prosecution 
of the war. The bill directs that ten per cent, of the net pro- 
ceeds of the public lands, sold within the limits of the seven 
new States, shall be set apart for them, in addition to the five per 
cent, reserved by their several compacts with the United States; 
and that the residue of the proceeds, whether from sales made 
in the States or Territories, shall be divided among the twenty- 
four States in proportion to their respective federal population. 
In this respect the bill conforms to that which was introduced 
in 1832. For one I should have been willing to have allowed 
the new States twelve and a half per cent., but as that was 
objected to by the President, in his veto message, and has been 
opposed in other quarters, I thought it best to restrict the allow- 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 37 

ance to tlie more moderate sum. The bill also contains large 
and liberal grants of land to several of the new States, to place 
them upon an equality with others to which the bounty of Con- 
gress has been heretofore extended, and provides that, when 
other States shall be admitted into the Union, they shall receive 
their share of the common fund. 

The nett amount of the sales of the public lands in the year 
1833, was the sum of $3 67,683 55, in the year 1834, was 
$4,857,600 69, and in t' e year 1835, according to actual re- 
ceipts in the three first quarters and an estimate of the fourth, 
is $12,222,121 15 ; making an aggregate for the three years of 
$21,047,404 39. This aggregate is what the bill proposes to 
distribute and pay to the twenty-four States on the first day of 
May, 1836, upon the principles which I have stated. The 
ditference between the estimate made by the Secretary of the 
Treasury and that wliich I have oflered of the product of the 
last quarter of this year, arises from my having taken, as the 
probable sum, one-third of the total amount of the three first 
quarters, and he some other conjectural sum. Deducting from 
the $21,047,404 39 the fifteen per cent, to which the seven 
new States, according to the bill, will be first entitled, amount- 
ing to $2,612,350 18, there will remain for distribution among 
the twenty-four States of the Union the sum of $18,435,054 21. 
Of this sum the proportion of Kentucky will be $960,947 41 ; 
of Virsfinia, the sum of $1,581,069 39; of North Caiolina, 
$988,632 42 ; and of Pennsylvania, $2,083,233 32. The 
proportion of Indiana, including the fifteen per cent, will be 
$855,588 23; of Ohio, $1,677,110 84, and of Mississippi, 
$958,945 42. And the proportions of all the twenty-four States 
are indicated in a table which I hold in my hand, prepared at 
my instance in the office of the Secretary of the Senate, and to 
winch any Senator may have access. The grounds on which 
the extra allowance is made to the new States are, first, their 
complaint that all lands sold by the federal government are 
five years exempted from taxation ; secondly, that it is to be 
applied in such manner as will augment the value of the unsold 
public lands within tliem ; and, lastly, their recent settlement. 

I confess I feel anxious for the fnle of this measure, less on 
account of any agency I have had in proposing it, as 1 hope and 
believe, than from a firm, sincere, and thorough conviction, that 
no one measure ever presented to the councils of the nation was 
fraught with so much luimixed good, and could exert such pow- 
erful and enduring influence in the preservation of the Union 
itself, and upon some of its highest interests. If I can be instru- 
mental, in any degree, in the adoption of it, I shall enjoy, in 
that retirement into which 1 hope shortly to enter, a heart-feeling 



38 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

satisfaction and a lasting consolation. I shall carry there no 
regrets, no complaints, no reproaches on my own account. 
When I look back, upon my humble origin, left an orphan loo 
young to have been conscious of a father's smiles and caresses, 
wiiii a widowed mother, surrounded by a numerous ofr>pring, 
in the midst of pecuniary embarrassments, without a regular 
education, without fortune, without friends, without patrons, I 
have reason to be satisfied with my public career. 1 ought to 
be thankful for tlie high places and honors to which I have been 
called by the favor and partiality of my countrymen, and I am 
thankful and grateful. And 1 shall take with me the pleasing 
consciousness that, in whatever station I have been placed, I 
have earnestly and honestly laboured to justify their confidence 
by a faithful, fearless, and zealous discharge of my public duties. 
Pardon these personal allusions. 



ON THE EXPUNGING RESOLUTION. 

Mr. President, what patriotic purpose is to be accomplished 
by this expunging resolution ! What new honor or fresh laurels 
will it win for our common country ? Is the power of the 
Senate so vast that it ought to be circumscribed, and that of 
the President so restricted, tliat it ought to be extended? What 
power has the Senate ? None separately. It can only act 
jointly with the other House, or jointly with the executive. 
And although the theory of the Constitution supposes, when 
consulted by him, it may freely give an affirmative or negative 
response according to the practice, as it now exists, it has lost 
the faculty of pronouncing the negativ,e monosyllable. When 
the Senate expresses its deliberate judgment, in the form of 
resolution, that resolution has no compulsory force, but appeals 
only to the dispassionate intelligence, the calm reason, and the 
sober judgment of the community. The Senate has no army, 
no navy, no patronage, no lucrative offices, nor glittering honors 
to bestow. Around us there is no swarm of greedy expectants, 
rendering us homage, anticipating our wishes, and ready to 
execute our commands. 

How is it with the President ? Is he powerless. He is felt 
from one extremity to the other of this vast republic. By 
means of principles which he has introduced, and innovations 
which he has made in our institutions, alas ! too much counte- 
nanced by Congress and a confiding people, he exercises uncon- 
trolled the power of the State. In one hand he holds the purse, 
and in the other brandishes the sword of the country. Myriads 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 39 

of dependents and partizans, scattered over the land, are ever 
ready to sing hosannas to him, and to laud to the skies what- 
ever he does. He has swept over the government, during the 
last eight years, like a tropical tornado. Every department ex- 
hibits traces of tlie ravages of the storm. Take, as one exam- 
ple, the Bank of the United States. No institution could have 
been more popular with the people, with Congress, and with 
State Legislatures. None ever better fulfilled the great purposes 
of its establishment. But it unfortunately incurred the displea- 
sure of the President; he spoke, and the Bank lies prostrate. 
And lliose wlio were loudest in its praise, are now loudest in its 
condemnation. What object of his ambition is unsatisfied? 
When disabled from age any longer to hold the sceptre of 
power, he designates his successor, and transmits it to liis 
favoriie. What more does he want. Must we blot, deface, and 
mutilate the records of the country to punish the presumptuous- 
ness of expressing an opinion contrary to his own. 

What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this expung- 
ing resolution ? Can you make that not to be which has been ? 
Can you eradicate from memory and from history the fact, that 
in March, 1834, a majority of the Senate of the United States 
passed the resolution whicli excites your enmity ? Is it your 
vain and wicked object to arrogate to yourselves that power of 
annihilating the past which has been denied to Omnipotence 
itself? Do you intend to thrust your hands into our hearts, 
and to pluck out the deeply rooted convictions which are there ? 
or is it your design merely to stigmatize us ? You cannot 
stigmatize US. 

" Ne'er yet did base dishonour blur our name." 

Standing securely upon our conscious rectitude, and bearing 
aloft the shield of the Constitution of our country, your puny 
efforts are impotent, and we defy all your power. Put the 
majority of 1834 in one scale, and that by which this expung- 
ing resolution is to be carried in the other, and let truth and 
justice, in heaven above and on the earth below, and liberty and 
patriotism decide the preponderance. 

What patriotic purpose is to be accomplished by this expung- 
ing? Is it to appease the wrath, and to heal the wounded pride 
of the Chief Magistrate ? If he be really the hero that his 
friends represent him, he must despise all mean condescension, 
all grovelling sycophancy, all self-degradation, and self-abase- 
ment. He would reject with scorn and contempt, as unworthy 
of his fame, your black scratches, and your baby lines in the 
fair records of his country. Black lines ! Black lines ! Sir, 



40 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

I hope the Secretary of the Senate will preserve the pen with 
whicli he may inscribe them, and present it to that Senator of 
the niajorily whom he may select, as a proud trophy, to be 
transmitted to his descendants. And hereafter, when we shall 
lose the forms of our free institutions, all that now remain to us, 
some future American monarcli, in gratitude to those by whose 
means he has been enabled, upon the ruins of civil liberty, to 
erect a throne, and to commemorate especially this expunging 
resolution, may institute a new order of knighthood, and confer 
on it the appropriate name of the ivuight of the black lines. 

But why should I detain the Senate or needlessly waste 
my breath in fruitless exertions. 'J'he decree has gone forth. 
It is one of urgency, too. The deed is to be done — that foul 
deed, like the blood-stained hands of the guilty Macbeth, all 
ocean's waters will never wash out. Proceed, then, to the 
noble work which lies before you, and like other skilful execu- 
tioners, do it quickly. And when you have perpetrated it, go 
home to the people, and tell them what glorious honors you 
have achieved for our common country. Tell them that you 
liave extinguished one of the brightest and purest lights that 
ever burnt at the altar of civil liberty. Tell them you have 
silenced one of the noblest batteries that ever thundered in de- 
fence of the Constitution, and bravely spiked the cannon. Tell 
them that, henceforward, no matter what daring or outrageous 
act any President may perform, you have forever hermetically 
sealed the mouth of the Senate. Tell them that he may fear- 
lessly assume what power he pleases — snatch from its lawful 
custody the public purse, command a military detalchment to 
enter the halls of the capitol, overawe Congress, trample down 
the Constitution, and raze every bulwark of freedom ; but that 
the Senate must stand mute, in silent submission, and not 
dare to raise its opposing voice. That it must wait until a 
House of Representatives, humbled and subdued like itself, 
and a majority of it composed of the partizans of the President, 
shall prefer articles of impeachment. Tell them finally, that 
you have restored the glorious doctrine of passive obedience, and 
if non-resistance, and the people do not pour out their indig- 
nation and imprecations, I have yet to learn the character of 
American freemen. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 41 

ON THE SUB-TREASURY. 

United States Senate, February 19, 1838. 

The great evil under wliich the country labors is the suspen- 
sion of the banks to pay specie : the total derangement in all do- 
mestic exchanges ; and the paralysis which has come over the 
whole business of the country. In regard to the currency, it 
is not that a given amount of bank notes will not now command 
as much as the same amount of specie would have done prior 
to the suspension ; but it is the future, tlie danger of an incon- 
vertible paper money being indelinitely or permanently fixed 
upon the people, that fills them with apprehensions. Our great 
object should be to re-establish a sound currency and thereby to 
restore the exchanges, and revive the business of the country. 

The first impression which the measures brought forward by 
the administration make, is that they consist of temporary expe- 
dients, looking to the supply of the necessities of the treasury ; 
or, so far as any of them possess a permanent character, its ten- 
dency is rather to aggravate than alleviate the sufferings of the 
people. None of them proposes to rectify the disorders in 
the actual currency of the country ; but the people, tlie States, 
and their banks, are left to shift for themselves as they may 
or can. The administration, after having intervened between 
the states and their banks, and taken timn into their federal 
service, without the consent of the States ; after having puffed 
and praised them ; after having brought them, or contributed to 
bring them, into their present situation, now suddenly turns its 
back upon them, leaving them to their fate ! It is not content 
with that; it must absolutely discredit their issues. And the 
very people who were told by the administration that these 
banks would supply them with a better currency, are now left 
to struggle as they can with the very currency which the 
government recommended to them, but which it now refuses 
itself to receive ! 

The professed object of the administration is to establish 
what it terms the currency of the Constitution, wliich it proposes 
to accomplish by restricting the federal government, in all re- 
ceipts and payments, to the exclusive use of specie, and by 
refusing all bank paper, whether convertible or not. It dis- 
claims all purposes of crippling or putting down the banks of 
the Slates; bat we shall better determine the design or the 
effect of the measures recommended by considering them to- 
gether, as one system. 



43 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

1. The first is the sub-treasuries, which are to be made tlie 
depositories of all the specie collected, and paid out for the 
service of the general government, discrediting and refusing all 
the notes of the States, although payable and paid in specie. 

2. A bankrupt law for the United States, levelled at all tlie 
State banks, ami authorizing the seizure of the effects of any 
one of them that stop payment, and the administration of their 
eflects under the federal authority exclusively. 

3. A particular law for the District of Columbia, by which 
all the corporations and people of the District, under severe 
pains and penalties, are prohibited from circululing, sixty days 
after the passage of the law, any paper whatever not convertible 
into specie on demand, and are made liable to prosecution by 
indictment, 

4. And lastly, the bill to suspend the payment of the fourth 
instalment to the States, by the provisions of which the deposite 
banks indebted to the government are placed at the discretion 
of the Secretary of the Treasury. 

It is impossible to consider this sy.-tem without perceiving 
that it is aimed at, and, if carried out, must terminate in the 
total subversion of the State Banks ; and that they will all be 
placed at the mercy of the federal government. It is in vain to 
protest that there exists no design against them. The effect of 
tliose measures cannot be misunderstood. 

Is it practicable for the federal government to put down the 
State banks, and to introduce an exclusive metallic currency ? 
In the operations of this government, we should ever bear in 
mind that political power is distributed between it and the 
States, and that, while our duties are few and clearly defined, 
the great mass of legislative authority abides with the States. 
Their banks exist without us, independent of us, and in spite 
of us. We have no constitutional power or rigiit to put them 
down. Why, then, seek their destruction, openly or secretly, 
directly or indirectly, by discrediting their issues, and by bank- 
rupt laws, and bills of pains and penalties. What are these 
banks now so decried and denounced ? Intruders, aliens, 
enemies that have found their way into the bosom of our coun- 
try against our will. Reduced to tlieir elements, and the analysis 
shows that they consist: 1st. of stockholders; 2d. debtors; 
and 3d. bill holders and otlier creditors. In some one of these 
three relations, a large majority of the people of the United 
States stand. In making war upon the banks, therefore, you 
wage war upon the people of the United States. It is not a mere 
abstraction that you would kick and cufl', bankrupt and destroy, 
but a sensitive, generous, confiding people, who are anxiously 
turning their eyes towards you, and imploring relief. Every 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 43 

blow that you inflict upon the banks, renches them. Press 
t[ie hanks, and you press them. 

We are told that it is necessary to separate, divorce the 
government from tlie banks. Let us not be deluded by sounds. 
Senators might as well talk of separating tlie government from 
the States, or from the people, or from the country. We are all 
— People — Slates — Union — Banks, bound up and. interwoven 
together, united in fortune and destiny, and all, all entitled to 
the protecting care of a parental government. You may as 
well attempt to make the government breathe a diflerent air, 
drink a different water, be lit and warmed by a diflerent sun 
from the people ! A hard money government and a paper money 
people! A government, an official corps — the servants of the 
people — glittering in gold, and the people themselves, their mas- 
ters, buried in ruin, and surrounded with rags. 

No prudent or practical government will in its measures 
run counter to the long-settled habits and usages of the people. 
Religion, language, laws, the established currency and business 
of a whole country, cannot be easily or suddenly uprooted. 
After the denomination of our coin was changed to dollars and 
cents, many years elapsed before the old method of keeping 
accounts, in pounds, shillings and pence, was abandoned ; and, 
to this day, there are probably some men of the last century 
who adhere to it. If a fundamental change becomes necessary, 
it should not be sudden, but conducted by slow and cautious 
degrees. The people of the United States have been always 
a paper money people. It was paper money that carried us 
through the revolution, established our liberties, and made us a 
free and independent people. And, if the experience of the 
revolutionary war convinced our ancestors, as we are convinced, 
of the evils of an irredeemable paper medium, it was put aside 
only to give place to that convertible paper which has so pow- 
erfully contributed to our rapid advancement, prosperity, and 
greatness. 

The proposed substitute of an exclusive metallic currency, to 
the mixed medium with which we have been so long familiar, 
is forbidden by the principles of eternal justice. Assuming the 
currency of the country to consist of two-thirds of paper and 
one of specie; and assuming, also, that the money of a country, 
whatever may be its component parts, regulates all values, and 
expresses the true amount which the debtor has to pay to his 
creditor, the eff'ect of the change upon that relation, and upon 
the property of the country, would be most ruinous. — All pro- 
perty would be reduced in value to one-third of its present 
nominal amount, and every debtor would, in efTect, have to pay 
three times a? much as he had contracted for. The pressure of 



44 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

our foreign debt would be three times as great as it is, wliilst 
the six liundred millions, which is about the sum now probably 
due to the banks from the people, would be multiplied into 
eighteen hundred millions. 

Still, under a deep sense of the obligation to which I have 
referred, I declare that, after the most deliberate and anxious 
consideration of which I am capable, I can conceive of no ade- 
quate remedy which does not comprehend a National Bank as an 
essential part. It appears to me that a National Bank, with such 
nioditications as experience has pointed out, and particularly 
such as would limit its profits, exclude foreign intluence in the 
government of it, and give publicity to its transactions, is the 
only safe and certain remedy that can be adopted. The great 
want of the country is a general and uniform currency, and a 
point of union, a sentinel, a regulator of the issues of the local 
banks, and that would be supplied by such an institution. 

I am not going now to discuss, as an original question, the 
constitutional power of Congress to establish a National Bank. 
In human affairs there are some questions, and I think this is 
one, that ought to be held as terminated. Four several decisions 
of Congress affirming the power, the concurrence of every 
other department of the government, the approbation of the 
people, the concurrence of both the great parties into which 
the country has been divided, and forty years of prosperous ex- 
perience with such a bank, appear to me to settle the contro- 
versy, if any controversy is ever to be settled. Twenty years 
ao-o Mr. Madison, wliose opposition to the first Bank of the 
United States is well known, in a message to Congress said : 

" Waiving the question of the constitutional authority of the 
. legislature to establish an incorporated bank, as being precluded, 
in my judgment, by repeated recognitions, under varied circum- 
stances, of the validity of such an institution, in acts of the 
legislative, executive and judicial branches of the government, 
accompanied by indications, in different modes, of a correspon- 
dence; of the general will of the nation ; the proposed bank does 
not appear to be calculated to answer the purposes of reviving 
the public credit, of providing a national medium of circtdation, 
and of aiding the treasury by facilitating the indispensable anti- 
cipations of revenue, and by affording to the public more durable 
loans." 

To all the considerations upon which he then relied, in treat- 
ing it as a settled question, are now to be added two distinct 
and distant subsequent expressions of the deliberate opinion of 
a Republican Congress; two solemn decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, twenty years of successful expe- 
rience and disastrous consequences quickly following the dis- 
continuance of the Bank. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 45 

But the true and only efficacious and permanent remedy, I 
solemnly believe, is to be found in a Bank of the United States, 
properly organized and constituted. We are told that such a 
bank is fraught with indescribable danger, and that the govern- 
ment must, in the sequel, get possession of the bank, or the 
bank of the government. I oppose to these imaginary terrors 
the practical experience of forty years. I oppose to them tlie 
issue of the memorable contest commenced by the late Presi- 
dent of the United States against the late Bank of the United 
States. The administration of that bank had been without 
serious fault. It had given no just offence to government, 
towards which it had faithfully performed every financial duty. 
Under its able and enlightened President, it had fulfilled every 
anticipation which had been formed by those who created it; 
President Jackson pronounced the edict that it must fall, and 
it did fall, against the wishes of an immense majority of the 
people of the United Stales ; against the convictions of its utility 
entertained by a large majority of the States ; and to the preju- 
dice of the best interests of the whole country. If an innocent, 
unoffending and highly beneficial institution could be thus easily 
destroyed by the power of one man, where would be the diffi- 
culty of crushing it, if it had given any real cause for just ani- 
madversion ? Finally, I oppose to these imaginary terrors the 
example deducible from English history. There a bank has 
existed since the year 1694, and neither has the bank got pos- 
session of the government, nor the government of the bank. 
They have existed in harmony together, both conducing to the 
prosperity of that great country ; and they have so existed, and 
so contributed, because each has avoided cherishing towards 
the other that wanton and unnecessary spirit of hostility which 
was unfortunately engendered in the late President of the 
United States. 



ON ABOLITION PETITIONS. 

7/1 the Senate of the United States, February 7, 1839. 

It is well known to the Senate, that I have thought that the 
most judicious course with abolition petitions has not been of 
late pursued by Congress. I have believed that it would have 
been wisest to have received and referred them, without oppo- 
isition, and to have reported against their object in a calm and 
llispassionate and argumentative appeal to the good sense of the 
whole community. It has been supposed, however, by a ma- 



46 ASHLAND TKXT BOOK. 

j irity of Congress, that it was most expedient either not to 
receive the petitions at all, or, if formally received, not to act 
definitely upon tiiem. Tliere is no subotantial difference be- 
tween these opposite opinions, since both look to an absolute 
rejection of the prayer of the petitioners. But there is a great 
difTerence in the form of proceeding ; and, Mr. President, some 
experience in the conduct of human affairs has taugl)t me to 
believe that a neglect to observe established forms is often 
attended with more mischievous consequences than the inflic- 
tion of a positive injury. We all know that, even in private 
life, a violation of the existing usages and ceremonies of society 
cannot take place without serious prejudice. I fear, sir, that 
the abolilioni-ts have acquired a considerable apparent force 
by blending with the object which they have in view a collateral 
and totally different question arising out of an alleged violation 
of the right of petition. I know full well, and take great plea- 
sure in testifying, that nothing was remoter from the intention 
of the majority of the Senate, from which I differed, than to 
violate the right of petition in any case in which, according to 
its judgment, that right could be constitutionally exercised, or 
where the object of the petition could be safely or properly 
granted. Still, it must be owned that the abolitionists have 
seized hold of the fact of the treatment which their petitions have 
received in Congress, and made injurious impressions upon 
the minds of a large portion of the community. This, I think, 
mio-ht have been avoided by the course which 1 should have 
been glad to have seen pursued. 

There are three classes of persons opposed, or apparently op- 
posed, to the continued existence of slavery in the United States. 
The first are those who, from sentiments of philanthropy and 
humanity, are conscientiously opposed to the existence of 
slavery, but who are no less opposed, at the same time, to any 
disturbance of the peace and tranquillity of the Union, or the 
infringement of the powers of the States composing the confed- 
eracy. In this class may be comprehended that peaceful and 
exemplary society of " Friends," one of whose established 
maxims is, an abhorrence of war in all its forms, and the culti- 
vation of peace and good-will among mankind. The next class 
consists of apparent abolitionists — that is, those who, having 
been persuaded that the right of petition has been violated by 
Congress, co-operate with the abolitionists for the sole purpose 
of asserting and vindicating that right. And the third class are 
the real ultra-abolitionists, who are resolved to persevere in the 
pursuit of their object at all hazards, and without regard to any 
consequences, however calamitous they may be. With them 
the right of property is nothing ; the deficiency of the powers 



ASHLAXD TEXT BOOK. 47 

of tlie general government is nothing ; the acknowledged and 
incontestible powers of the States are nothing; a civil war, a 
dissolution of the Union, and the oveKthrow of a government 
in which are concentrated the fondest hopes of tlie civilized 
world, are nothing. A single idea has taken possession of their 
minds, and onward they pursue it, overlooking all barriers, 
and regarilless of all consequences. With this class ihe imme- 
diate abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in tlie 
territory of Florida, the prohibition of the removal of slaves 
from State to State, and the refusal to admit any new State, 
comprising within its limits the institution of domestic slavery, 
are but so many means conducing to the accomplishment of the 
ultimate but perilous end at which they avowedly and boldly 
aim; are but so many short stages in the long and bloody road 
to the distant goal at which they would finally arrive. Their 
purpose is abolition, universal abolition, peaceably if they can, 
forcibly if they must. Their object is no longer concealed by 
the thinnest veil ; it is avowed and proclaimeil. Utterly destitute 
of constitutional or other rightful power, living in totally distinct 
communities, as alien to the communities in which the subject 
on which they would operate resides, so far as concerns politi- 
cal power over that subject, as if they lived in Africa or Asia, 
they nevertheless promulgate to the world their purpose to be 
to manumit forthwith, and without compensation, and without 
mora] preparation, three millions of negro slaves, under juris- 
dictions altogether separated from those under which they live. 
I have said that immediate abolition of slavery in the District 
of Columbia and the territory of Florida, and the exclusion of 
new States, were only means towards the attainment of a much 
more important end. Unfortunately, they are not the only 
means. Another, and much more lamentable one is that which 
this class is endeavoring to employ, of arraying one portion 
against another portion of the Union. With that view, in all 
their leading prints and publications, the alleged horrors of 
slavery are depicted in the most glowing and exaggerated 
colors, to excite the imaginations and stimulate the rage of the 
people in the free States against the people in the slave States. 
The slaveholder is held up and represented as the most atro- 
cious of human beings. Advertisements of fugitive slaves and 
of slaves to be sold, are carefully collected and blazoned forth, 
to infuse a spirit of de'.estation and liatred against one entire and 
the largest section of the Union. And, like a notorious agitator 
upon another theatre, they would hunt down and proscribe from 
the pale of civilized society the inhabitants of that entire sec- 
tion. Allow me, Mr. President, to say, that while I recognize 
in the justly wounded feelings of the minister of the United 



48 ASHLAND TEXT DOOK. 

States at the Court of St. James, much to excuse the notice 
which he was provoked to take of that agitator, in my humble 
opinion, lie would have heller consulted the dignity of his sta- 
tion and of his country in treating it with contemptuous silence. 
He would exclude us from European society — he who himself 
can only obtain a contraband admission, and is received with 
scornful repugnance into it ! If he be no more desirous of our 
society than we are of his, he may rest assured that a slate of 
eternal non-intercourse will exist between us. Yes, sir, 1 think 
the American minister would have best pursued the dictates of 
true digrnity bv retjarding the language of the member of the 
British House of Commons as the malignant ravings of the 
plunderer of his own country, and the libeller of a foreign and 
kindred people. 

But the means to which I have already adverted, are not the 
only ones which this third class of ultra-abolitionists are em- 
ploying to effect their ultimate end. They began their opera- 
tions by professing to employ only persuasive means in appeal- 
ing to the humanity, and enlightening the understandings of the 
slave-holding portion of the Union. If there were someTiind- 
ness in this avowed motive, it must be acknowledged that there 
was rather a presumptuous display also of an assumed supe- 
riority in intelligence and knowledge. For some time they 
contuiued to make these appeals to our duty and our interest ; 
but impatient with the slow influence of their logic upon our 
minds, they recently resolved to change their system of action. 
To the agency of their powers of persuasion, they now propose 
to substitute the powers of the ballot-box ; and he must be blind 
to what is passing before us, who does not perceive that the 
inevitable tendency of their proceedings is, if these should be 
found insufficient, to provoke, finally, the more potent powers 
of the bayonet. 

Various causes, Mr. President, have contributed to produce 
the existing excitement on the subject of abolition. The prin- 
cipal one, perhaps, is the example of British emancipation of 
the slaves in the islands adjacent to our country. Such is the 
similarity in laws, in language, in institutions, and in common 
origin, between Great Britain and the United Stales, that no 
great measure of national policy can be adopted in the one 
country without producing a considerable degree of influence in 
the other. Confounding the totally diflTerent cases together, of 
the powers of the British parliament and those of the Congress 
of the United Slates, and the totally diff'erent situations of the 
British West India Islands, and the slaves in the sovereign and 
independent States of this confederacy, superficial men have 
inferred from the undecided British experiment, the practicabili- 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOE. 40 

ty of the abolition of slavery in these States. The powers of 
the British parliament are unlimited, and are often described to 
be omnipotent. The powers of the American Congress, on the 
contrary, are few, cautiously lim.ited, scrupulously excluding 
all that are not granted, and above all, carefully and absolutely 
excluding all power over the existence and continuance of 
slavery in the several States. The slaves, too, upon which 
British legislation operated, were not in the bosom of the king- 
dom, but in remote and feeble colonies having no voice in par- 
liament. The West India slaveholder was neither represented 
nor representative in that parliament. And while I most fer- 
vently wish complete success to the British experiment of West 
India emancipation, I confess that I have fearful forebodings of 
a disastrous termination of it. Whatever it may be, I think it 
must be admitted that, if the British parliament had treated the 
West India slaves as freemen, it also treated the West India 
freemen as slaves. If, instead of these slaves being separated 
by a wide ocean from the parent countiy, three or four millions 
of Africa negro slaves had been dispersed over England, Scot- 
land, Wales, and Ireland, and their owners had been members 
of the British parliament — a case which would have presented 
some analogy to that of our country — does any one believe 
that it would have been expedient or practicable to have eman- 
cipated them, leaving them to remain, with all their embittered 
feelings, in the United kingdom, boundless as the powers of 
the British parliament are? 
• I am, Mr. President, no friend of slaverj''. The searcher of 
all hearts knows that every pulsation of mine beats high and 
strong in the cause of civil liberty. Wherever it is safe and 
practicable, I desire to see every portion of the human family in 
the enjoyment of it. But I prefer the liberty of my own country 
to that of any other people ; and the liberty of my own race 
to that of any other race. The liberty of the descendants of 
Africa in the United States is incompatible with the safety and 
liberty of the European descendants. Their slavery forms an 
exception — an exception resulting from a stern and inexorable 
necessity — to the general liberty in the United States. — We 
did not originate, nor are we responsible for, this necessity. 
Their liberty, if it were possible, could only be established by 
violating the incontestable powers of the States, and subverting 
the Union. And beneath the ruins of the Union would be 
buried, sooner or later, the liberty of both races. 

But if one dark spot exists on our political horizon, is it not 

obscured by the bright, effulgent and cheering light that beams 

all around us I Was ever a people before so blessed as we are, 

if true to ourselves ? Did ever any other nation contain within 

3 



50 ASHl.AND TEXT BOOK. 

its bo3om 90 many elements of prosperity, of greatness, snd of 
glory ? Our only real danger lies ahead, conspicuous, elevated, 
and visible. It was clearly discerned at the commencement, and 
distinctly seen throughout our whole career. Shall we wantonly 
run upon it, and destroy all the glorious anticipations of the 
high destiny that awaits us? 1 beseech the abolitionists them- 
selves, solemnly to pause in their mad and fatal course, Amit 
the infinite variety of objects of humanity and benevolence 
•which invite the employment of their energies, let them select 
some one more harmless, that does not threaten to deluge our 
country in blood, I call upon that small portion of the clergV) 
whicii has lent itself to these wild and ruinous schemes, not 
to forget ihe holy nature of the divine amission of the founder 
of our religion, and to profit by his peaceful examples, I entreat 
that portion of my countrywomen who have given their coun- 
tenance to abolition, to remember that they are ever most loved 
and honored when moving in their own appropriate and delight- 
ful sphere; and to reflect that the ink which they shed in sub- 
scribing with their fair hands abolition petitions, may prove but 
the prelude to the shedding of the blood of their brethren. 1 
adjure all the inhabitants of the free states to rebuke and dis- 
countenarice, by their opinion and their example, measures 
which must inevitably lead to the most calamitous consequences. 
And let us all as countrymen, as friends, and as brothers, cher- 
ish in unfading memory the motto which bore our ancestors 
triumphanUy through all the trials of the revolution, as, if ad- 
hered to, it will conduct their posterity through all that may, 
in the dijspensations of Providence, be reserved for them. 



THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 
July lo//j, 1840, 

With the view, therefore, to the fundamental character of the 
government it?elf, and especially of the executive branch, it 
seems to me thai, either by amendments of the Constitution, 
when they are necessary, or by remedial legislation when the 
object falls within the scope of the powers of Congress, there 
should be, 

1st. A provision to render a person ineligible to the ofSce of 
President of the United States, after a service of one term. 

Much observation and deliberate reflection have satisfied me 
that too much of the time, the thoughts, and the exertions of the 
incumbent are occupied, during his first term, in securing his 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 51 

re-election. The public business consequently suffers, and 
measures are proposed or executed, with less regard to the 
general prosperity than to their influence upon the approaching 
election. If the limitation to one term existed, the President 
would be exclusively devoted to the discharge of his public 
duties; and he would endeavour to signalize his administration 
by tiie beneficence and wisdom of its measures. 

2nd. That the veto power should be more precisely defined, 
and be subjected to further limitations and qualifications. Al- 
though a large, perhaps the largest proportion of all the acts of 
Congress, passed at the short sessions of Congress, since the 
commencement of the government, were passed within the 
three last days of the session, and when, of course, the Presi- 
dent, for the time being, had not the ten days for consideration 
allowed by the Consiitution, President Jackson, availing himself 
of that allowance, has failed to return important bills. When 
not returned by the President within the ten days, it is ques- 
tionable whether they are laws or not. It is very certain that 
the next Congress cannot act upon them by deciding whether 
or not they shall become laws, the President's objections not- 
withstanding. All this ought to be provided for. 

At present, a bill returned, by the President, can only become 
a law by the concurrence of two-thirds of the members of 
each House. I think if Congress passes a bill, after discussion 
and consideration, and, after weighing the objections of the 
President, still believes it ought to pass, it should become a law, 
provided a majority of all the members of each House concur 
in its passage. If the weight of his argument, and the weight 
of his influence conjoindy, cannot prevail on a majority, against 
their former convictions, in my opinion the bill ought not to be 
arrested. Such is the provision of the constitutions of several 
States, and that of Kentucky among them. 

3d. That the power of dismission from oflSce should be re- 
stricted, and the exercise of it be rendered responsible. 

The constitutional concurrence of llie Senate is necessary to 
the confirmation of all important appointments, but, without con- 
sulting the Senate, without any other motive than resentment 
or caprice, the President may dismiss at his sole pleasure, an 
officer created by the joint action of himself and the Senate. 
The practical effect is to nullify the agency of the Senate, 'i'here 
may be occasionally, cases in which the public interest requires 
an immediate dismission without waiting for the assembling of 
the Senate ; but, in all such cases, the President should be bound 
to communicate fully the grounds and motives of the dismission. 
The power would be thus rendered responsible. Without it, 
the exercise of the power is utterly repugnant to free institu- 



52 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

tions, the basis of which is perfect responsibility, and dangerous 
to public liberiv, as has been already shown. 

4lh. That the control over the treasury of the United States 
should be confided and confined exclusively to Cony^ress ; and 
all authority of the President over it, by means of dismissing 
the Secretary of the Treasury, or other persons having the im- 
mediate charge of it, be rigorously precluded. 

You have heard much, fellow citizens, of tiie divorce of banks 
and government. After crip})ling them and impairing their 
utility, the executive and its partisans have systematically 
denounced them. The executive and the country were warned 
again and again of the fatal course that has been pursued ; but 
the executive, nevertheless, persevered, commencing by prais- 
ing and ending by decrying the State banks. Under cover of 
the smoke which has been raised, the real object all along has 
been, and yet is, to obtain the possession of the money power 
of the Union. That accomplished and sanctioned by the people 
— the union of the sword and the purse in the hands of the 
President effectually secured — and farewell to American liberty. 
The subtreasury is the scheme ibr effecting that union ; and I 
am told, that of all the days in the year, that which gave birth 
to our national existence and freedom, is the selected day to 
be disgraced by ushering into existence a measure, imminently 
perilous to the liberty which, on that anniversary, we com- 
memorate in joyous festivals. Thus, in the spirit of destruc- 
tion which animates our rulers, would they convert a day of 
gladness and of glory into a day of sadness and mourning. 
Fellow citizens, there is one divorce urgently demanded by 
the safely and the highest interests of the country — a divorce 
of the President from the treasury of the United States. 

And 5lh. That the appointment of members of Congress to 
any office, or any but a few specific offices, during their con- 
tinuance in office, and for one year thereafter, be prohibited. 

This is a hackneyed theme ; but it is not less deserving serious 
consideration. The Constitution now interdicts the appointment 
of a member of Congress to any office created, or the emolu- 
ments of which had been increased while he was in office. In 
the purer days of the republic, that restriction might have been 
sufficient, but in these more degenerate times, it is necessary, 
by an amendment of the Constitution, to give the principle a 
greater extent. 

Candor and truth require me to say, that, in my judgment, 
while banks continue to exist in the country, the services of a 
Bank of the United Stales cannot be safely dispensed with. I 
think that the power to establish such a bank is a settled ques- 
tion ; settled by Washington and by Madison, by the people, 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 53 

by forty years' acquiescence, by the jiuliciary, and by both 
of the threat parties which so long held sway in the country. I 
know and I respect the contrary opinion which is entertained 
in this State. But, in my deliberate view of ihe matter, the 
power to establish such a bank being settled, and being a ne- 
ceissary and proper power, the only question is as to the expe- 
diency of its exercise. And on questions of mere expediency 
public opinion ought to have a controlling influence. Without 
banks 1 believe we cannot have a sufficient currency; without 
a Bank of the United Slates, I fear we cannot have a sound 
currency. But it is the end, that of a sound and sufficient cur- 
rency, and a faithful execution of the fiscal duties of govern- 
ment, tliat should engage the dispassionate and candid consid- 
eration of the whole community. There is nothing in the name 
of the Bank of the United States which has any magical charm, 
or to which any one need be wedded. It is to secure certain great 
objects, without which society cannot prosper; and if, contrary 
to my apprehension, these objects can be accomplished by dis- 
pensini: with the agency of a Bank of the United States, and 
employing that of State banks, all ought to rejoice and heartily 
acquiesce, and none would more than 1 should. 



ANTI-REPUDIATION. 

Language has been held in this chamber which would lead 
any one who heard it to believe that some gentlemen would 
take delight in seeing States dishonored and unable to pay their 
bonds. If such a feeling does really exist, I trust it will find no 
sympathy with the people of this country, as it can have none 
in the breast of any honest man. When the honorable Senator 
from Massachusetts (Mr. Webster) the other day uttered, in 
such thrilling language, the sentiment that honor and probity 
bound the States to the faithful payment of all their debts, and 
that they would do it, I felt my bosom swelling with patriotic 
pride — pride, on account of the just and manly sentiment itself; 
and pride, on account of the beautiful and eloquent language ia 
which that noljle sentiment was clothed. Dishonor American 
credit! Dishonor the American name ! Dishonor the whole 
country ! Why sir, what is national character, national credit, 
national honor, national glory, but the aggregate of the charac- 
ter, the credit, the honor, the glory, of the parts of the nation ? 
Can the parts be dishonored, and the whole remain unsullied ? 
Or can the whole be blemished, and the parts stand pure and 
untainted ! Can a younger sister be disgraced, without bringing 



54 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

blushes and shame upon (he wliole family ! Can our young 
sister Illinois (I mention her only for illustration, but with all 
feelings anil senlinjents of fraternal regard,) ran she degrade her 
character as a State without bringing reproach and obloquy upon 
all of us ? What has made England — our country's glorious 
parent — (although she has taught us the duty of eternal watch- 
fulness, to repel aggression, and maintain our rights against 
even her) — what has made England the wonder of tlie worUl ? 
What has raised her to such pre-eminence in wealth, power, 
empire and greatness, at once the awe and the admiration of 
nations ? Undoubtedly, among the prominent causes, have been 
the preservation of her credit, the maintenance of her honor, and 
the scrupulous fidelity with which she has fulfilled her pecu- 
niary engagements, foreign as well as domestic. An opposite 
example of a disregard of national faith and character presents 
itself in the pages of ancient history. Every schoolboy is 
familiar with the phrase " Punic faith," which at Rome became 
a byword and a reproach against Carthage, in consequence of 
her notorious violations of her public engagements. The 
stigma has been transmitted down to the present time, and 
will remain for ever uneffaced. Who would not lament that a 
similar stigma should be affixed to any member of our confeder- 
acy ? If there be any one so thoroughly imbued with party 
spirit, so destitute of honor and morality, so regardless of just 
feelings of national dignity and character, as to desire to see 
any of the States of this glorious Union dishonored, by violating 
their engagements to foreigners, and refusing to pay their just 
debts, I repel and repudiate him and his sentiments as unworthy 
of the American name, as sentiments dishonest in themselves, 
and neither entertained nor approved by the people of the 
United States. 

We propose that, by a just exercise of incontestable powers 
possessed by this government, we shall go to the succor of all 
the states, and, by a fair distribution of the proceeds of the 
public lands among them, avert as far as that may avert, the 
ruin and dishonor with which some of them are menaced. We 
propose, in short, such an administration of the powers of this 
government as shall protect and relieve our common constituents 
from the embarrassments to which tliey may be exposed from 
the defects in the powers or in the administration of the state 
governments. 

Now, sir, it is manifest, that the public lands cannot be all 
settled in a century or centuries to come. The progress of 
their settlement is indicated by the growth of the population of 
the United States. There have not been, on an average, five 
millions of acres per annum sold, during the last half century. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 55 

Larger quantities will be probably hereafter, although not 
immediately, annually sold. Now, when we recollect, that we 
have at least a billion of acres of land to dispose of, some idea 
may be entertained, judging from the past of the probable length 
of time before the whole is sold. Prior to their sale and settle- 
ment, the luioccupied portion of the public domain must remain 
eitlier in the hands of the general government, or in tiie hands 
of the stale governments, or pass into the hands of speculators. 
In the hands of the general government, if that government shall 
perform its duty, we know that the public lands will be distri- 
buted on liberal, equal, and moderate terms. The worst fate that 
can befall tliem would be for lliem to be acquired by speculators. 
The emigrant and settler would always prefer purchasing from 
government, at fixed and known rates, rather tban from the 
speculator, at unknown rates, fixed by his cupidity or caprice. 
But if they are transferred from the genera! government, the 
best of them will be engrossed by speculators. That is the 
inevitable tendency of reduction of the price by graduation, 
and of cession to the States within which they lie. 

The rival plan is for the general government to retain the 
public domain, and make distribution of the proceeds in time of 
peace among the several states, upon equal and just principles, 
according to the rule of federal numbers, and in time of war to 
resume the proceeds for its vigorous prosecution. We think, 
that tbe administration of the public lands had better remain 
with the common government, than administered according to 
various, and, perhaps, conflicting views. As to that important 
part of them which was ceded by certain states to the United 
States for the common benefit of all the states, a trust was 
thereby created which has been voluntarily accepted by the 
United States, and which they are not at liberty now to decline 
or transfer. The history of public lands held in the United. 
States, demonstrates that they have been wasted or thrown 
away by most of the states that owned any, and that the general 
government has displayed more judgment and wisdom in the 
administration of them than any of the states. While it is 
readily admitted that revenue should not be regarded as the 
sole or exclusive object, the pecuniary advantages which may 
be derived from this great national property to both the states and 
the Union, ought not to be altogether overlooked. 

The measure which I have had the honor to propose, settles 
this great and agitating question forever. It is founded upon 
1^0 partial and unequal basis, aggrandizing a few of the States 
to the prejudice of tlie rest. It stands on a just, broad, and 
liberal foundation. It is a measure applicable not only to the 
«itatcs now in being, but to the territories, as states shall here- 



56 ASHLANP TEXT BOOK- 

after be formed out of them, and to all new slates as they shall 
rise tier behind tier, to the Pacific ocean. It is a system operat- 
ing upon a space almost boundless, and adapted to all future 
time. It was a noble spirit of harmony and union that prompted 
the revolutionary states originally to cede to the United Stales. 
How admirably does this measure confc rm to that spirit and 
tend to the perpetuity of our glorious Union ! The imagination 
can hardly conceive one fraught with more harmony and union 
among the Stales. If to the other ties tliat bind us together as 
one people, be superadded the powerful interest springing out 
of a just administration of our exhaustless public domain, for 
which, for a long succession of ages, in seasons of peace, the 
states will enjoy the benefit of the great and growing revenue 
which it produces, and in periods of war that revenue will be 
applied to the prosecution of tl)e war, we shall be for ever 
linked togelher, wilh the strength of adamantine chains. No 
section, no state, would ever be mad enough to break off from 
the Union, and deprive itself of the inestimable advantages 
which it secures. Although thirty or forty more of the new 
stales should be admitted into this Union, this measure would 
cement ihem all fast together. The honorable member from 
Missouri near me, (Mr. Linn,) is very anxious to have a set- 
tlement formed at the mouth of the Oregon, and he will probably 
be gratified at no very distant day. Then will be seen members 
from tlie Pacific Slates scaling the Rocky Mountains, passing 
tlirough the country of the grizzly bear, descending the turbid 
Missouri, entering the father of rivers, ascending the beautiful 
Ohio, and coming to this capilol, to take their seats in its spa- 
cious and magnificent halls. Proud of the commission they 
bear, and happy to find themselves here in council wilh friends, 
and brothers, and countrymen, enjoying the incalculable benefits 
of this great confederacy, and among diem their annual distri- 
butive share of the issues of a nation's inheritance, would even 
they, the remote people of the Pacific, ever desire to separate 
themselves from such a high and glorious destiny? The fund 
Avhich is to be dedicated to these great and salutary purposes, 
does not proceed from a few thousand acres of land, soon to 
be disposed of; but of more than ten luindred millions of acres : 
and age after age may roll a\v:iy, stale after state arise, genera- 
tion succeed generation, and still the fund will remain not only 
unexhausted, but improved and increasing, for the benefit of our 
children's children to the remotest posterity. The measure is 
jiot one pregnant wilh jealousy, discord or division, but il is a 
far-reaching, comprehensive, healing measure of compromise 
and composure, having for its patriotic object the harmony, the 
stability, and the prosperity of the stales and of ihe Union. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 5T 

SLAVERY AND ABOLITION. 

Reply to Mr. AlendenhalV s Petition, Oct. Isf, 1843. 

Without any knowledge of the relation in which I stand to 
my slaves, or their individual condition, you, Mr. Mendenhall, 
and your associates, who have been active in getting up this 
petition, call upon me forthwith to liberate the whole of them. 
Now let me tell you, that some half dozen of them, from age, 
decrepitude, or infirmity, are wholly unable to gain a livelihood 
for themselves, and are a heavj^ charge upon me. Do you think 
I should conform to the dictates of humanity by ridding myself 
of that charge, and sending them forth into the world, with 
the boon of liberty, to end a wretched existence in starvation ? 
Another class is composed of helpless infants, with or without 
improvident mothers. Do you believe, as a Christian, that I 
should perform my duty towards them by abandoning them to 
their fate ? Then there is another class who would not accept 
their freedom if I would give it to them. I have for many 
years owned a slave that I M'ished would leave me, but he will 
not. What shall I do with that class ? 

What my treatment of my slaves is you may learn from 
Charles, wlio accompanies me on this journey, and who has 
travelled with me over the greater part of the United States, 
and in both the Canadas, and has had a thousand opportunities, 
if he had chosen to embrace them, to leave me. Excuse me, 
Mr. Mendenhall, for saying that my slaves are as well fed and 
clad, look as sleek and hearty, and are quite as civil and respect- 
ful in tlieir demeanor, and as little disposed to wound the feel- 
ings of any one, as you are. 

Let me recommend you, sir, to imitate the benevolent ex- 
ample of the Society of Friends, in the midst of which you 
reside. Meek, gentle, imbued with the genuine spirit of our 
benign religion, while in principle they are firmly opposed to 
slavery, they do not seek to accomplish its extinction by foul 
epithets, coarse and vulgar abuse, and gross calumny. Their 
ways do not lead through blood, revolution and disunion. Their 
broad and comprehensive philanthropy embraces, as they be- 
lieve, the good and the happiness of the white as well as the 
black race; giving to the one their commiseration, to the other 
their kindest sympathy. Their instruments are not those of 
detraction and of war, but of peace, persuasion and earnest ap- 
peals to the charities of the human heart. Unambitious, they 
have no political objects or purposes to subserve. My inter- 



58 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

course with them throughout life has been considerable, inter- 
esting and agreeable; and I venture to say nothing could have 
induced them as a society, whatever a few individuals might 
have been tempted to do, to seize the occasion of my casual 
passage through this State to offer me a personal indignity. 

I respect tlie motives of rational abolitionists, who are actu- 
ated by a sentiment of devotion to human liberty, although I 
deplore and deprecate the consequences of the agitation of the 
question. I have even many friends among them. But they 
are not monomaniacs, who, surrendering themselves to a single 
idea, look altogether to the black side of human life. They do 
not believe thai the sum total of all our efforts and all our 
solicitude should be abolition. They believe that there are 
duties to perform towards the white man as well as the black. 
They want good government, good administration, and the 
general prosperity of their country. 

I shall, Mr. JNIendenhall, lake your petition into respectful 
and deliberate consideration ; but before I come to a final de- 
cision, I should like to know what you and your associates are 
willing to do for the slaves in my possession ; if I should think 
proper to liberate them. I own about fifty, who are probably 
worth fifteen thousand dollars. To turn them loose upon society 
without any means of subsistence or support would be an act 
of cruelty. Are you willing to raise and secure the payment 
of fifteen thousand dollars for their benefit, if I should be in- 
duced to free them ? The security of the payment of that sum 
would materially lessen the obstacle in the way of their eman- 
cipation. 

And now, Mr. Mendenhall, I must take respectful leave of 
you. We separate, as we have met, with no unkind feelings, 
no excited anger or dissatisfaction on my part, whatever may 
have been your motives, and these I refer to our common judge 
above, to whom we are both responsible. Go home, and mind 
-your own business, and leave other people to take care of theirs. 
Limit your benevolent exertions to your own neighborhood. 
Within that circle you will find ample scope for the exercise of 
all your charities. Dry up the tears of the afflicted widows 
around you, console and comfort the helpless orphan, clothe 
the naked, and feed and help the poor, black and white, who 
need succor. And you will be a better and wiser man than 
you have this day shown yourself. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 59 



ON RETIRING FROIVI THE SENATE. 

From 1806, the period of my entry on this noble theatre, 
with short intervals, to the present time, 1 have been engaged 
in the public councils, at home and abroad. Of the nature or 
the value of the services rendered during that long and arduous 
period of my life, it does not become me to speak ; history, if 
she deigns to notice me, or posterity, if the recollections of my 
humble actions shall be transmitted to posterity, are the best, 
the truest, the most impartial judges. When death has closed 
the scene, their sentence will be pronounced, and to that 1 ap- 
peal and refer myself. My acts and public conduct are a fair 
subject for the criticism and judgment of my fellow-men ; but 
the private motives by which they have been prompted, they 
are known only to the great Searcher of the human heart and 
to myself; and I trust I may be pardoned for repealing a decla- 
ration made some thirteen years ago, that, whatever errors— 
and doubtless there have been many — may be discovered in a 
review of my public service to the country, I can with un- 
shaken confidence appeal to that Divine Arbiter for the truth of^ 
the declaration, that I have been influenced by no impure pur- 
poses, no personal motive — have sought no personal aggran- 
dizement ; but that in all my public acts I have had a sole and 
single eye, and a warm and devoted heart, directed and dedi- 
cated to what in my judgment I believed to be the true interest 
of my country. j v r r 

During that period, however, I have not escaped the tate ot 
other public men, nor failed to incur censure and detraction of 
the bitterest, most unrelenting, and most malignant character; 
and though not always insensible to the pain it was meant to 
inflict, I have borne it in general with composure, and without 
disturbance here, [pointing to his breast,] waiting as 1 have 
done, in perfect and undoubting confidence, for the ultimate 
triumph of justice and truth, and in the entire persuasion that 
time would, in the end, settle all things as they should be, and 
that whatever wrong or injustice I might experience at the 
hands of man. He to whom all hearts are open and fully 
known, would in the end, by the inscrutable dispensations of 
his providence, rectify all error, redress all wrong, and cause 
ample justice to be done. 

But I have not meanwhile been unsustained. Every where 
throughout the extent of this great continent, I have had cordial, 
warm-hearted, and devoted friends, who have known me and 
justly appreciated my motives. To them, if language were 



60 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

susceptible of fully expressing my acknowledcrments, I would 
now offer them, as all the returns I have now to make for their 
genuine, disinterested and persevering fidelity, and devoted 
attachment. But if I fail in suitable language to express my 
gratitude to them for all the kindness they havL' shown me — 
what shall I say — what can I say at all commensurate with 
those feelings of gratitude which I owe to the State whose 
humble representative and servant I have been in this Cham- 
ber? 

I emigrated from Virginia to the State of Kentucky now 
nearly forty-five years ago: I went as an orphan w!io had not 
yet attained the age of majority — who had never recognized a 
father's smile nor felt his caresses — poor, pennyless — without 
the favor of the great ; with an imperfect and inadequate edu- 
cation, limited to the ordinary business and common pursuits of 
life ; but scarce had I set my foot upon her generous soil when 
I was seized and embraced with parental fondness, caressed as 
though 1 had been a favorite child, and patronized wilii liberal 
and unbounded munificence. From that period the liighest 
honors of the State have been freely bestowed upon me ; and 
afterwards, in the darkest hour of calumny and detraction, 
when I seemed to be forsaken by all the rest of the world, she 
threw her broad and impenetrable shield around me, and bear- 
ing me up aloft in her courageous arms, repelled the poisoned 
shafts that were aimed at my destruction, and vindicated my 
good name against every false and unfounded assault. 

Tluit inv nntiirf ■"• "orm, inr temper ardent, my disposition, 
especially in relation to the public service, enthusiastic, I am 
fully ready to own ; and those who supposed that I have been 
assuming the dictatorship, have only mistaken for arrogance or 
assumption, that fervent ardor and devotion which is natural to 
my constitution, and which I may have displayed with too 
little regard to cold, calculating and cautious prudence, in sus- 
taining and zealously supporting important national measures 
of policy which I have presented and proposed. 

During a long and arduous career of service in the public 
councils of my country, especially during the last eleven years 
I have held a seat in the Senate, from the same ardor and en- 
thusiasm of character, I have no doubt, in the heat of debate, 
and in an honest endeavor to maintain my opinions against 
adverse opinions equally honestly entertained, as to the best 
course to be adopted for the pubfic welfare, I may have often 
inadvertently or unintentionally, in moments of excited debate, 
made use of language that has been ofiensive and susceptible 
of injurious interpretation towards my brother Senators. If 
there be any here who retain wounded feelings of injury or 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 61 

dissatisfaction produced on such occasions, I beg to assure 
them that I now offer the amplest apology for any departure on 
my part from the established rules of parliamentary decorum 
and courtesy. On the other hand, I assure the Senate, one all, 
without exception and without reserve, that I retire from this 
Senate Chamber without carrying with me a single feelino- of 
resentment or dissatisfaction to the Senate or to any one of its 
members. 

I go from this place under the hope that we shall mutually 
consign to perpetual oblivion, whatever personal collisions may 
at any time unfortunately have occurred between us ; and that 
our recollections shall dwell in future only on those conflicts of 
mind with mind, those intellectual struggles, those noble exhi- 
bitions of the powers of logic, argument and eloquence, 
honorable to the Senate and to the country, in which each has 
sought and contended for what he deemed the best mode of 
accomplishing one common object, the greatest interest and the 
most happiness of our beloved country. To these thrilling and 
delightful scenes it will be my pleasure and my pride to look 
back in my retirement. 

And now, Mr, President, allow me to make the motion which 
it was my object to submit when I rose to address you. I 
present the credentials of my friend and successor. If any void 
has been created by my own withdrawal from the Senate, it 
M'ill be filled to overflowing by him ; whose urbanity, whose 
gallant and gentlemanly bearing, whose steady adherence to 

principle, and whose rare ana accuiiipnci.^a ^' : i , , . 

are known already in advance to the whole Senate and country. 
I move that his credentials be received, and that the oath of 
office be now administered to liim. 

In retiring, as I am about to do, for ever from the Senate, 
suffer me to express my heartfelt wishes that all the great and 
patriotic objects for which it was constituted by the wise fra- 
mers of the Constitution may be fulfilled ; that the high destiny 
designed for it m ly be fully answered ; and that its delibera- 
tions, now and hereafter, may eventuate in restoring the pros- 
perity of our beloved country, in maintaining its rights and 
honors abroad, and in securing and upholding its interests at 
home. I retire, I know it, at a period of infinite distress and 
embarrassment. I wish I could take my leave of you under 
more favorable auspices ; but, without meaning at this time to 
say whether on any or on whom reproaches for the sad condi- 
tion of the country should fall. I appeal to the Senate and to 
the world to bear testimony to my earnest and anxious exertions 
to avert it, and that no blame can justly rest at my door. 

May the bleesing of Heaven rest upon the whole Senate and 



62 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 



each member of it, and may the labors of every one redound 
to the benefit of the nation' and the advancement of his own 
fame and renown. And when you shall retire to the bosom of 
your constituents, may you meet the most cheering and grati- 
fying of all human rewards; their cordial greeting of ♦♦ Well 
done, good and faithful servants." 



MR. CLAY AND MR. RANDOLPH. 

All are acquainted with the eccentricities of John Randolph, 
and with the facts, that he had no great liking for Mr. Clay, 
and that he was wont to rebel against Mr. Clay's discipline, as 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is, however, 
recorded to his credit, that in 1833, while passing through 
Washington to Philadelphia, where he died soon after, — he 
requested to be carried up to the Senate Chamber, although too 
weak to walk or stand. He had not been there long, before Mr. 
Clay rose to speak in debate. " Help me up, help me up," 
said Mr. Randolph to a friend that stood by him—" / came 
here to hear that voice.'' When Mr. Clay had finished, he 
came and spoke with Mr. Randolph.— They shook hands and 
parted in a spirit of mutual good will. It was the last time 
they ever met. 

•« How many Cl»y men are there ?"— This is the question 
John Tyler asked Jonathan Roberts, when he dictated his 
ouuui.a..icv^o. ^.le election in Philadelphia on the 10th inst. 
shows exactly — about 3000 majority ! We hope the news ia 
satisfactory to the capting ! — VUlage Record. 




ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 



68 




THE MOON WAS SHINING SILVER BRIGHT. 



A WHIG SONG, BY J. GREENIER. 

Tune—'* Old Dan Tucker." 

The moon was shining silver bright. 
The stars with glory crowned the night, 
High on a limb that "same old coon," 
Was singing to himself this tune : 

Get out the way, you're all unlucky ; 

Clear the track for old Kentucky ! 

Now in a sad predicament, 
The Lokies are for President, 
Tliey have six horses in the pasture, 
And don't know which can run the faster. 

Get out of the way, &c. 

The wagon horse from Pennsylvania, 
The Dutchman thinks he's best of any ; 
But he must drag in heavy stages, 
His federal notions and low wages. 

Get out of the way, &c. 

They proudly bring upon the course. 
An old and broken down war-horse; 
They shout and sing, ' rumpsey dunipsey, 
Col. Johnson killed Tecumsey !' 

Get out of the way, &c. 



64 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

And here is Cass, though not a dunce, 
Will run both sides of the track at once; 
To win the race will all things copy, 
Be sometimes pig, and someiimes puppy. 

Get out of the way, &c. 

The fiery southern horse Calhoun, 
Who hates a Fox and fears a Coon, 
'I'o toe the scratch will not be able, 
For Matty keeps him in the stable. 

Get out of the way, Slc. 

And here is Matty, never idle, 
A tricky horse that slips his bridle ; 
In forty-four we'll show him soon, 
The little Fox can't fool the Coon. 

Get out of the way, Slg. 

The balky horse they call John Tyler, 
We'll head him soon, or burst his boiler ; 
His curded ' Grippe' has seized us all, 
Which Doctor Clay will cure next fall, 

Get out of the way, &c. 

The people's favorite, Henry Clay, 
Is now the ' Fashion' of the day ; 
And let the track be dry or mucky, 
We'll stake our pile on old Kentucky. 

Get out of the way, he's swift and lucky ; 

Clear the track for old Kentucky ! 



A barber in Lexington having some ill feeling toward Mr. 
Clay was about to vote against him. But meetins? Mr. Clay 
one day in the street, he accosted him, and said, "I have 
wronged you, Mr. Clay." "How so?" "Why my wife 
came to me and said, ' Jerry, don't you remember when you 
were in jail, and Mr. Clay came and let you out ? and will you 
vote against him V ' No ! no ! Jinny,' I said, ' do you think 
I am such a beast V " 



HENRY CLAY. 

The great — the wise — the virtuous — all they say. 
In Time's dread progress, die, and turn to Clay ! 
A dying nation shall the comment give. 
She turns to Clay, but turns to Clay to live. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 65 



THE DAYTON GATHERING. 

To Dayton we have come, my boys, 

All in a sfreat array, 
And we will sing and shout aloud, 
Hurra for Henry Clay ! 

Hurra, hurra, hurra, for Henry Clay, 
Hurra, hurra, hurra, for Henry Clay. 

He is the man for us, my boys. 

He's honest, great and true ; 
And he can beat that Utile Van, 

Or any of his crew. Hurra, hurra, &c. 

It's right to have the people meet, 

In a good old fashioned way ; 
And when they've met to sing Hurra, 

Hurra for Harry Clay I Hurra, &c. 

He lives in old Kentuck, my boys, 

The banner State, you know. 
And she has lots of relatives. 

The nearest 0-h-i-o ! Hurra, &c. 

The first, is little Tennessee, 

And she is not so slow. 
And when election does come on. 

For Harry Clay she'll go. Hurra, &c. 

The next is Louisiana Slate, 

On her you can depend 
To boast along old Harry Clay, 

A helping hand she'll lend. Hurra, &c. 

Old North Carolina is safe enough, 

For Harry Clay, is she. 
Old Caplaiii Tyler she will head, 

A.nd veto hiin ''per se." Hurra, &c. 

When Georgia votes in forty-four, 

She'll rank among the best. 
Of those that help along the ball 

For Harry of the West. Hurra, &c. 



M ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

The next relation in that State 

^Vhich is called Maryland, 
And she has pledged herself to go, 

For the farmer of Ashland ? Hurra, &c. 

Of the Empire State I need not speak, 

But this much will I say, 
That she has done with her favorite son. 

And goes for Harry Clay. Hurra, &c. 

The Yankee States they are all safe, 

For Clay and Davis too. 
While Jiittle Rhody opposes Dorr, 

And Captain Tyler too. Hurra, &c. 

New Jersey State is safe and true, 

For Harry of the West, 
For she has said that of all men, 

That man she loves the best Hurra, Sic. 

The little State of Delaware, 

She's '* glorious to behold," 
And in eighteen hundred forty-four. 

The right tale will be told. Hurra, &c. 

And yet there is the Keystone State, 

And she'll not fail to be 
In eighteen hundred forty-four 

With the rest of the family. Hurra, &;c. 

The Wolverines are a set of boys 

The Locos cannot buy, 
And when they growl and ehow their teeth, 

For Harry Clay they'll cry. Hurra, &c. 

And '• last not least," the Hoosier State 

Will do what she has done, 
And give to Harry of the West 

What she gave to Harrison. Hurra, &.c. 

In eighteen hundred forty-four, 

The people all will say. 
That for our President we'll have 

The Patriot, Henry Clay. Hurra, <fec. 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 67 

Three cheers for Harry of the West, 

Three cheers for Davis, too, 
Three cheers for Tom, the Wagon Boy, 
Three cheers for ladies true. 

Hurra, hurra, hurra, for Harry Clay, 
Hurra, hurra, hurra, for Harry Clay. 



PATRONISE YOUR MECHANICS. 

" He that provideth not for his own household, denieth the 
faith, and is worse than an infidel," saith the Apostle. This is 
no less true of communities tlian of individuals. Every com- 
munity is bound by those laws which bind society together, to 
protect and support each other. No man, however wealthy he 
may be, can live entirely independent of his fellow man ; 
unless, indeed, he is prepared to retire to a hermitage. No 
man can live in a community like ours, and enjoy the benefits 
of Science and the Mechanic Arts, without patronising to a 
certain extent, the mechanics of his own, or some other com- 
munity. The same is equally true of the ' day laborer.' The 
question now arises, which is he bound to patronize ? his own 
neighbors, or the operatives of some other community? The 
answer will readily suggest itself to every intelligent reflecting 
mind. Most of our mechanics have families to support; they 
have located themselves with a view of a permanent residence; 
and, Poor Richard says, " three moves is as bad as a fire," and 
we should endeavor to prevent such a dire calamity by keep- 
ing him employed at. home; and not suffer him to go abroad 
after employment. If you have occasion to employ men in 
any branch of business, or labour, you can always find persons 
in your immediate neighborhood, who are in want of work, 
and can supply all, or nearly all your demands at a reasonable 
rate. Then employ them by all means; for by so doing, the 
whole community will be benefitted in various ways. When 
all hands are industriously engaged in useful and profitable 
labor, a healthy, moral tone is given to the community ; while 
the laborer is enabled by the product of his toil to make bis 
family comfortable and happy; cheerfulness and contentment 
will abound ; while gladness dwells in all houses. The parent 
is enabled to purchase suitable books for himself and children, 
and is thereby enabled to cultivate his mind, and prepare him- 
self for usefulness in society ; and his children to become 
blessings, not only to their parents, but to society and the com- 



08 ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 

munity in which they live, and to the thousands over whom 
they will exert a greater or less influence. 

By employing our own mechanics, so far as we have occa- 
sion for iheir labour, instead of sending them aliroad, they will 
be encouraged to persevere in the ways of well-doing : a husi- 
ness-like aspect will be given to the town, a home market 
created for the surplus produce of the farmers; our school- 
houses wdl be belter tilled, and schools better supported, the 
means of doing good will be promoted, and we shall command 
the respect of otiier communities. 

Do you want a of pair shoes or boots made or mended, a gar- 
ment, or a carriage made or mended ? Go at once to your 
neighbor whose business it is to do such work, (provided vou 
have one who is capable and honest,) keep his tools froni rust- 
ing and his hands from idleness. Do not stop to enquire 
whether he goes to the same meeting which you do ; if he does 
not, then there is the more room for you ; never ask if he votes 
the same ticket that you do ; for perhaps if he does not, he 
votes a far better one ; leave his mind free, and rest satisfied 
that he has voted in accordance with his own judgment, (and 
you can do no better than this) and that he is a good neighbor, 
and an honest citizen, and encourage him to remain such. 
Recognize him as a brother and neighbour and not regard him 
as an alien or an enemy. 

It reflects but little honor upon any community, to be found 
sending their orders abroad for that which could be easily ob- 
tained at home of your own mechanics. — It is virtually saying 
to the world, ' we have no competent mechanics at home,' or 
what is still worse, that ' we feel no interest whatever, in their 
prosperity and happiness.' 

One would suppose that self-interest, if no higher or purer 
motive, would induce our citizens to adopt this course in regard 
to the purchase of all moveable articles, which are usually 
hawked and peddled about the country, from abroad. Because, 
if after you have purchased an article of a pedler, it turns our 
that an error has occurred, or that you have got ^'■shaved,'''' 
there is no remedy ; they are here to-day and oflf to-morrow. 
But if you, on the other hand, purchase of your neighbor, self- 
interest, if nothing else, would induce him to correct all mis- 
takes, and to deal honorably with you in order to secure your 
custom. 

A MECHANIC. 

Gardiner, Oct. 1843. Gardiner Ledger. 



ASHL*ND TEXT BOOK. 



6d 




THE SHIP COLUMBIA. 

BV F. B. GRAHAM. 

Tune—" Hail to the Chief r 
Far from the west see the statesman advancing, 

Whose voice in our cause has so often been heard ; 
Now his bright, beaming eye, towards the whig standard glancing, 

Is fixed on the gay-phimaged liberty bird. 
Give him the helm of the fair ship Columbia, 

And we'll laugh at the storm as we ride safely o'er 
All the high-swelling surges of life's troubled ocean, 
Till Protection we find on our own native shore. 
Now to the lofty mast, 
Nail the whig banner fast, 
And let it fore'er on the wind's pinions play ! 
None will the tempest fear, 
When with a hearty cheer. 
We welcome on board the brave mariner Clay. 

Toss'd have we been 'mid the breakers of treachery. 

Tyrants and traitors have guided us long, 
But without breaking forth in a blood thirsty mutiny. 

We'll send the old Captain away with a song. 
'Neath the folds of that standard at mast-head now streaming, 

Our crew will not long by the guard be oppressed ; 
For the sun-light of peace will soon o'er us be gleaming 
And will gladden our homes in the land of the west, 
Standing our flag beneath. 
Let us a laurel wreath 
Entwine round the brow of the brave Harry Clay ! 
Hark ! 'tis the bugle-blast! 
Nail the whig banner fast ! 
And e'er let it float in the light of the day, 



72 



ASHLAND TEXT BOOK. 



JOHN QULNCY ADAMS AND HENRY CLAY. 

The Charge of " Bargain and Sale." — The Maysville, 
Kentucky Eagle says : — Mr. Adams, in his address in the Pres- 
byterian chnrch of Maysville, in responding to the declaration 
of Gen. Collins, " that he, (Mr. Adams ) had placed Kentucky 
under deep and lasting obligations to him for his noble defence 
of her great statesman, in his letter to the Whigs of New 
Jersey," replied, as follows : 

" I thank you, sir, for the opportinity you have given me of 
speaking of the great Statesman wiio was associated with me 
in the administration of the General Government, at my ear- 
nest solicitation ; who belongs not to Kentucky alone, but to 
the whole Union ; and is not only an honor to this state and 
this nation, but to mankind. The charges to which you refer, 
I have, after my term of service had expired, and it was proper 
for me to speak, denied before the whole cour i.ry ; and I here 
reiterate and reaffirm that denial ; and as I expect shortly to 
appear before my God, to answer for the conduct of my whole 
life, should these charges have found their way to the Throne 
of Eternal Justice, I will, in tiik presence of Omnipotence, 

PRONOUNCE IT FALSE." 

This solemn declaration of the venerable mi:n, who must in 
the course of nature, soon appear before the Judge of all, needs 
no comment. 



While Colonel Johnson was on a visit to Pennsylvania, he |; 
was asked what opinion he entertained of Henry Clay. His ;; 
reply was " As an orator, and a statesman, he is one of the | 
greatest men living." i 




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